Does Your Cyber Insurance Cover a State-Sponsored Attack?

Many cyber insurance policies specifically exclude “hostile or warlike actions” from their coverage. While this is an understandable measure to protect insurers in times of widespread upheaval, it can leave businesses with little recourse when they’re hit by a state-sponsored cyberattack. In this piece, the author suggests several ways that businesses can build resilience to cyberattacks (and a potential lack of coverage due to insurance exclusions) in the short term. He then goes on to discuss how governments, insurers, and businesses must work to develop a new financial framework to address cyber risk long-term. While there’s no avoiding cyber risk entirely, thinking about these issues in advance — and developing a comprehensive strategy to prepare for them — can keep these cyber threats from becoming full-blown catastrophes.