Distinguished Blog - Cyber Liability
Market insights and industry news.
How Hybrid Work Challenges IT Departments
When work-from-home became a reality for most professionals last year due to the pandemic, many firms had to rethink their best practices in order to adequately protect against network security, data breaches, and other IT vulnerabilities. As many firms are now adopting a hybrid work approach that consists of working in the office and remote,…
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The Spate of Ransomware Attacks Puts Focus on Cyber Insurance Need
The recent surge in ransomware attacks has many private and public companies along with government entities reviewing their need for cyber insurance. Ransomware is where cybercriminals use malicious software to hold an organization’s computer system hostage and demand payment (typically in the form of bitcoin/cryptocurrency) to give back control.
Why You Need Cyber Insurance
In the past year, we’ve seen key emerging cyber trends as bad actors up their game with more sophisticated and targeted attacks against businesses. According to a report by Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), 2020 saw a continued trend among cybercriminals in moving away from mass attacks seeking consumer information and toward attacks that target…
Cyber Insurance Part of Business Continuity for Limited-Service, Franchise Hotels
Cybercriminals continue to attack the hospitality industry, becoming increasingly more sophisticated in their tactics. While high-profile incidents such as Marriott’s data breach earlier this year and MGM Resort’s data breach in 2019 that affected 10.6 million guests make headline news, limited-service and smaller franchise hotels are also the victims of bad actors, with data theft,…
Remote Work Cybersecurity Best Practices
Hacking activity is up, with cybercriminals taking advantage of remote work vulnerabilities amid the COVID-19 crisis. There are approximately 85 million Americans working from home. In fact, researchers cite that activity against corporations in the United States more than doubled by some measures in March, with malware infections, phishing tactics ,and ransomware running rampant. That’s…
Unlocking the Growing Cyber Risks in the Hospitality Industry
No industry, including the hospitality sector, is untouched by the growing threat of cybercrime. According to a report by Accenture, organizations have seen security breaches and other cyber risks grow by 67% in the past five years alone.
Spotlight on Cyber Threats for Community Associations
In a recent article, “Data Defense,” published in Common Ground magazine, Pat Bruen, Product Manager for Distinguished’s Community Association Program, provides valuable insight on the various cyber threats HOAs, condo associations, co-ops and PUDs face. These community associations in their day-to-day operations handle and store confidential, personal identifiable information, such as homeowner names, addresses, bank…
Why Hotels Need a Cyber Insurance Policy
Having a separate Cyber insurance policy is vital to corporations that store any sort of customer data. Too often businesses mistakenly believe that their Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance will respond in the event of a data breach. This isn’t so as reflected by the latest case involving a Florida hotel group looking to its CGL policy…
Hotels Under Cyber Attack: IHG Data Breach
The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which owns thousands of hotels worldwide, disclosed earlier this month that a credit card breach impacted at least a dozen of its properties. This is just the latest cyber attack that has hit some of the largest hotel and hospitality chains over the past years – from Kimpton Hotels to…
Hackers Targeting Hotel Ransomware Attacks
Imagine it’s check-in or check-out time at your hotel on a Saturday right before a holiday and the entire computer system is locked. Kaput. Smiles and sorrys aren’t doing the trick. The “server reboot to the rescue” doesn’t get business up-and-running. In fact, it turns out that your software has been attacked by ransomware—a nasty…
Olympic Cyber Attack on the Athletes
If you listened to our interview with Gabriella Coleman, you know that cyber liability is of particular interest to us. That’s why today’s news about the cyber attack into the medical information of some of the top US Olympic athletes caught our eye immediately.