Anatomy of a cyber claim

Andrew Lipton, head of cyber claims at AmTrust Financial Services, outlines what a cyberattack looks like from a company’s perspective.

Cybercrime has grown exponentially over the past several years and a new report from the FBI finds that losses worldwide in 2021 were estimated at $6.9 billion – up from $4.2 billion in 2020. Business email compromise was the costliest scam, with losses of nearly $2.4 billion in 2021.

In this week’s Insurance Speak podcast, Andrew Lipton, vice president and head of cyber claims for AmTrust Financial Services, provides listeners with a first-hand look at what a cyberattack looks like for many businesses.

The first inkling occurs when someone in the company turns on their computer and gets a ransomware message that says something to the effect, “If you pay $XXX, we will provide you with the key to unlock your files and not release them publicly.”

Lipton says that ransomware has definitely become the business model of choice for hackers because the payoffs are so significant.

He goes on to explain what a company should do when a cyberattack occurs, discusses the nature of the investigation and how he sees cyber risks evolving in the future.

For more on this discussion, listen to the podcast above or subscribe to Insurance Speak on Spotify, Apple Music or Libsyn.

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