On September 21, 2021, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued an Updated Advisory on Potential Sanctions Risks for Facilitating Ransomware Payments on the sanctions risks associated with facilitating ransomware payments. OFAC, with assistance from the FBI, also designated SUEX OTC, S.R.O., as a malicious cyber actor, the first such sanctions designation against a virtual currency exchange.
Continue Reading OFAC Again Says Beware of Sanctions When Making Ransomware Payments and Designates Virtual Currency Exchange as Malicious Cyber Actor

In July 2021, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration announced a new Security Directive requiring owners and operators of certain critical pipelines transporting hazardous liquids and natural gas to implement specific cybersecurity measures.
Continue Reading U.S. Department of Homeland Security Announces Additional Pipeline Cybersecurity Directive

On July 28, 2021, President Biden signed a National Security Memorandum that formally establishes an Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Initiative and directs the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, in collaboration with other agencies, to develop and issue cybersecurity performance goals for critical infrastructure.
Continue Reading White House Issues Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems

The New York Department of Financial Services, which regulates the business of insurance in New York, has issued guidelines, in the Insurance Circular Letter No. 2 (2021) regarding “Cyber Insurance Risk Framework”, calling on insurers to take more stringent measures in underwriting cyber risks. In the Guidelines, NYDFS cites the 2020 SolarWinds attack as an example of how managing growing cyber risk is “an urgent challenge for insurers.”
Continue Reading New York Regulators Call on Insurers to Strengthen the Cyber Underwriting Process

On October 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued an advisory alerting companies of potential sanctions risks related to facilitating ransomware payments.
Continue Reading U.S. Department of the Treasury Issues Advisory Warning that Ransomware Payments May Violate OFAC Sanctions

In a recent podcast by Never Stop Learning, Hunton partner Lisa Sotto and Eric Friedberg of Stroz Friedberg and Aon’s Cyber Solutions Group discussed “Cybersecurity: How Concerned Should We Be?” We broke down the podcast into a three-part series.
Continue Reading NSL Podcast Series: Part 1 on Cybersecurity and Protecting “the Keys to the Kingdom”

As previously posted on our Hunton Insurance Recovery blog, a Maryland federal court awarded summary judgment to policyholder National Ink in National Ink and Stitch, LLC v. State Auto Property and Casualty Insurance Company, finding coverage for a cyber attack under a non-cyber insurance policy after the insured’s server and networked computer system were damaged as a result of a ransomware attack.
Continue Reading Maryland Court Finds Coverage for Lost Data and Slow Computers After Ransomware Attack

On June 26, 2017, Airway Oxygen reported that it was the subject of a ransomware attack affecting 500,000 patients’ protected health information. The attack is the second largest health data breach recorded by the Office for Civil Rights this year, and the largest ransomware incident recorded by OCR since it began tracking incidents in 2009.
Continue Reading Ransomware Health Data Breach Affects 500,000 Patients

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights and the Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force have published important materials addressing cybersecurity in the health care industry. This blog entry provides highlights on these materials.
Continue Reading OCR and Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force Publish Cybersecurity Materials