Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog

While the holiday season brings joy to many, it can be a stressful time for businesses. Cyberattacks often spike during weekends and holidays when businesses are less vigilant and slower to detect unusual activity. This reduced oversight creates an opportunity for attackers to exploit weaknesses and cause significant disruption. A recent article in Tech Times noted that ransomware groups launch over 50% of their attacks during weekends and take advantage of December’s increased operational shortages.

In the year ahead, supply chains for corporate America will likely be vulnerable to disruptions arising from multiple risks—from natural disasters to geopolitical strife—heightening companies’ dependence on insurance to manage their risks. Bloomberg Law’s recent article, “Climate, Labor Disruptions Leave Companies Reliant on Insurers” features commentary from counsel Jorge Aviles on how insurance can help shield businesses from financial losses following a supply chain-related loss. “Any business with operations that rely on a supply chain should be looking into insurance coverage to manage risks.” That safety net “gives the company the confidence that it won’t be out of pocket,” Aviles says. “It gives the employees and managers and directors of the company confidence as well, and it gives your lenders and investors confidence that the company won’t be on the hook for these massive losses.” “Companies relying on such coverage should keep in mind the tiers of suppliers,” Aviles said. “A policy might offer coverage for a direct supplier, for example, but not an indirect supplier that’s disrupted.”

We recently posted an article on Hunton’s Insurance Recovery Blog about a new Illinois Appellate Court decision that offers concrete direction for retail policyholders evaluating their exposure under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).  

If your company has been impacted by today’s network outage issues, know that insurance may be able to help. Many, but not all, cyber and technology errors and omissions (“Tech E&O”) insurance policies include broad dependent business interruption coverage for losses caused by system failures of a company or vendor on which you rely to operate your business.