Never before have corporate transactions and executive decisions been so contested. Whether politically, financially or environmentally motived, we’re now living in an age of activism where everyone from shareholders to employees and consumers, are influencing decision making, resulting in missed business opportunities, reputational damage, executive changes and potential stock drops. And it’s affecting both public and private companies alike.

CONSUMER ACTIVISM

Economic slowdowns and recessions pose considerable challenges for companies. In addition to the potential for decreased revenues, increased costs, and declining valuations, companies will encounter additional turbulence as the potential for litigation, occupational fraud and cyber-attacks all increase. In an effort to reduce costs, many companies may decide to reduce or eliminate insurance coverage, however this approach may adversely impact an organization’s total cost of risk.

For directors, officers, and professionals alike, nothing is more fear inducing than facing a large lawsuit while being uncertain if your insurance program will respond or not. There are however some steps that can be taken to minimize the likelihood of claim denials. In part 1 (below), we discuss some policy structure considerations.

In the world of constant cyber intrusions, protecting against theft of digital IP and source code is quickly becoming a top concern for many organizations. Difficult to protect against and near-impossible to insure against, many companies are left having to manage the risk on their own. This means securing against external hackers and internal threats alike (including executives and employees).

Despite all of the large scale hacks and cyber related headlines, cyber security litigation itself remains in its infancy. Case law is sparse, and policy language is slowly beginning to adapt itself to modern risk. In the interim, the c-suite is being confronted with constantly increasing regulatory requirements and new cyber exposures that threaten to test their abilities to remain in compliance – from breach notification laws, to social media related regulation FD violations and more. It goes without saying that the cyber risk environment has changed everything.

As Written For InsideCounsel

Cyber security has been the talk of the town for quite a while now. Organizations today flooded with statistics and mentions of the importance of proper security measures and cyber liability programs. Some companies understand the risk, other do not. Yes, cyber security is extremely important, as is a well structured cyber insurance policy. But there is often a missing ingredient to that recipe that can be easily overlooked. Crime insurance – specifically important for those seeking social engineering insurance.

As written For NetworkWorld & CIO.com

Could your internet connected/VOIP phone system be the next target for hackers? Cyber related breaches and social engineering (otherwise known as CEO fraud) have made a lot of waves in 2015 which are expected to continue in frequency and severity into 2016. Cyber breaches are generally employed in the form of malicious code, and social engineering in the form of fraudulent emails, however, with many companies using internet connected/VOIP phones today consider the potential damage of a hacker gaining access to your phone systems. Scenarios could include: