After 25 years of continuous business operations, the business owner of a colocation and IT services firm awoke to discover that all of the company’s computer systems and data, including data belonging to the company’s customers, had been encrypted in an elaborate ransomware attack. Even worse, the ransomware encrypted the company’s backups as well. Unable to afford the 25 bitcoin ransom (equivalent to ~$200,000), the company was left with few options. Then they called Coalition.

Within minutes, the IT services firm engaged Coalition's affiliate, Coalition Incident Response (CIR), who made contact with company employees to diagnose the damage and minimise further loss*. After reviewing the company’s options, the company asked CIR to help facilitate the decryption of the company’s data. In less than 24 hours CIR worked with the Coalition claims team to secure bitcoin on the company’s behalf and facilitate the decryption of the company’s files. A member of CIR was then present onsite to help restore the company’s files, perform forensics, and ultimately help the company protect against future attacks. The total time to resolution was 48 hours from the initial compromise.

Fortunately, the insured’s cyber insurance policy with Coalition covered the business interruption loss, the forensic and data restoration costs, as well as the cyber extortion itself. The insured also purchased Technology Errors & Omissions coverage from Coalition to help the company recover from liability to impacted customers.

Unlike traditional insurance providers, Coalition provides emergency first response services to help organisations recover quickly from cyber incidents, and at no additional cost to the policy premium.

*Breach response included the engagement of an incident response firm; the insured selected Coalition Incident Response. *The claim scenarios described here are intended to show the types of situations that may result in claims. These scenarios should not be compared to any other claim. Whether or to what extent a particular loss is covered depends on the facts and circumstances of the loss, the terms and conditions of the policy as issued and applicable law.