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COVID-19: Cybersecurity and Insurance Coverage

By Peter A. Halprin and Jacquelyn M. Mohr
May 01, 2020

While COVID-19 has plagued the world with deaths and forced more than a billion people to stay at home under various orders of civil authority, cyber criminals have not exited the scene. Instead, they are exploiting vulnerabilities created by the large number of persons working at home and launching targeted attacks on COVID-19-related medical facilities.

According to a recent report by Beazley, an insurer that sells cyberinsurance and reported a 131% increase in ransomware attacks in 2019, "[c]yber criminals are getting more creative and purposeful by the day." This is certainly true in the current environment.

In February, it was reported that cyber criminals were sending emails, allegedly on behalf of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with malicious links. Homer Pacag, "Multiple Phishing Attacks Discovered Using the Coronavirus Theme," Trustwave (Feb. 13. 2020). They are also sending spam emails seeking coronavirus donations, purportedly on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO). World Health Organization, "Beware of criminals pretending to be WHO." It has also been reported that cyber criminals are sending spam emails selling coronavirus protection kits and masks, seeking donations for vaccines, and even offering phony tax rebates. Erin Ayers, "Coronavirus cyber scams reaching pandemic proportions," Advisen (March 25, 2020); Joe Tidy, "Coronavirus: How hackers are preying on fears of COVID-19," BBC News (March 13, 2020).

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