Is Colonial Pipeline covered by insurance?

CNA Financial Corp., one of the largest insurers in the US, reportedly paid $40 million in late March to regain control of its network following a ransomware attack, according to people have knowledge of the attack.

Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts the victim’s data. Cybercriminals using ransomware also often steal data. The hackers then demanded a payment to unlock the files and promised not to leak the stolen data. In recent years, hackers have targeted victims with cyber insurance policies, and large volumes of sensitive consumer data make them more likely to pay ransoms, according to cybersecurity experts. According to the unnamed source, CNA paid the hackers about two weeks after a bunch of company data was stolen and CNA officials were locked out of its own network. CNA does not comment on the ransom, with a CNA spokesperson saying CNA followed all laws, regulations and guidelines, including OFAC’s 2020 ransomware guide, in handling the matter. CAN also shares attack intelligence and hackers’ identities with the FBI and the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control because facilitating ransom payments to hackers can cause punishment risk. The largest ransom amount Ransomware attacks – and payments in particular – are rarely disclosed so it’s difficult to know what the largest ransom is. The $40 million payout is larger than any previously disclosed payments to hackers. The hackers attacking CNA used malware called Phoenix Locker, a variant of ransomware called ‘Hades.’ According to cybersecurity experts, Hades was created by a Russian cybercrime organization called Evil Corp. Evil Corp. was sanctioned by the United States in 2019. However, identifying attacks can be difficult because hacking groups can share code or sell malware to each other. CNA, which provides cyber insurance, said its investigation concluded that the Phoenix hacker group was not on the US sanctions list. The disclosure of the payment is likely to draw outrage from lawmakers and regulators who are unhappy that US companies are paying large sums of money to criminal hackers who over the past year have targeted hospitals, drug manufacturers, police forces and other entities critical to public safety. The FBI discourages organizations from paying ransoms because it encourages additional attacks and does not guarantee data will be returned. Last year was a standout year for ransomware groups, with a task force made up of security experts and law enforcement agencies estimating that victims paid around $350 million in ransom last year, up 311% compared to 2019. The Task Force suggested 48 actions the Biden administration and the private sector could take to mitigate such attacks, including better regulation of money markets. digital currency used to make ransom payments. The report, prepared by the Institute for Security and Technology, was delivered to the White House days before the Colonial Pipeline Company was compromised in a ransomware attack that resulted in fuel shortages and long lines at stores. gas stations along the US East Coast Bloomberg reported that Colonial paid hackers nearly $5 million shortly after the attack. Colonial CEO Joseph Blount, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Wednesday, confirmed that the company paid the hackers – $4.4 million in ransom. According to two people familiar with the CNA attack, the company initially ignored the hacker’s request and attempted to recover the data without negotiating with the criminals. But within a week, the company decided to start negotiating with the hackers, who were demanding $60 million. Residents said the payment was made a week later. According to Barry Hensley, chief intelligence officer at cybersecurity firm Secureworks Corp. then the Phoenix Locker seems to be a variation of Hades based on the overlap of the code used in each. He said they have not yet identified which hackers used the Hades variant to attack CNA. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc believes Hades was created by Evil Corp. to bypass US sanctions against the hacking group. In December 2019, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against 17 individuals and six entities associated with Evil Corp. At the time, the Treasury Department said Evil Corp used malware “to infect computers and collect login information from hundreds of banks and financial institutions in more than 40 countries, causing more than 100 million dollars of theft. “It is illegal for any U.S. company to knowingly pay a ransom to Evil Corp. According to Melissa Hathaway, President of Hathaway Global Strategies and a former cybersecurity adviser to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, demand for ransomware has grown exponentially over the past six months. Hathaway said the average hacker’s ransom demand is between $50 million and $70 million. Those claims are often negotiable, and companies often pay ransoms in the tens of millions of dollars, in part because cyber insurance policies cover some or all of the costs. Hathaway estimates that the average payout is between $10 and $15 million. Ngoc Linh – According to Insurance Journal