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 of receiving the company’s call, Coalition’s Security Incident Response team (CIR) made contact with company employees to diagnose the damage and minimize 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 organizations recover quickly from cyber incidents, and at no additional cost to the policy premium.