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R&R Insurance Blog

Jason Navarro

Recent Posts

Cyber Crime on the Rise with COVID-19

Posted by Jason Navarro

Computer Bug

In this time of great uncertainty, it is more critical than ever for business owners to watch out for cyber-crime.  Unfortunately, criminals are and will be using this time to increase cyber-crime and prey on organizations as more and more people work remotely.

The following steps are simple risk mitigation tools that all organizations can spread to their teams and begin implementing immediately to help lower exposure.  We strongly urge you share these steps internally with your teams and make everyone a part of your cyber security team! 

  1. NEVER respond to emails asking for information or log on information from outside of your domain name.
  2. Be cautious every time you do enter your username and password to enter your systems and sites.  Criminals will spoof legitimate sites to trick you to log in.  Hover over the link to confirm it’s the intended destination.  
  3. Finance departments should physically call and talk on the phone or verify in person, FaceTime etc. that you can absolutely guarantee the financial transaction is not only legitimate to the correct person, correct dollar amount AND correct account number.  Read all of these back with double checks.  
  4. When in doubt, see something, say something.  Alert your management team and IT team immediately, if you suspect any mischievous cyber activity.   
  5. Activate your Cyber Crime continuity plan or make sure one is being built and in place.  

One IT step to greatly help alert your team and users, if possible.  

  • Work with your IT vendor or IT team to implement an “external” email banner/tag on all emails generated from outside of your organization. This is a great security step and tool to use to help mitigate outside actors from tricking or deceiving your employees.  

We are here to help with questions and options during this time!   Stay Safe!  

Cyber bulletin issued by the Department of Homeland Security

Posted by Jason Navarro

DHS

In early January 2020 the Department of Homeland Security issued the following urgent bulletin concerning retaliatory cyber-attacks: https://www.dhs.gov/ntas/advisory/national-terrorism-advisory-system-bulletin-january-4-2020

There are no specific direct threats yet but, as mentioned, there is a significantly elevated risk and high likelihood of a Cyber-attack by Iran (a state sponsor of terrorism) in retaliation to recent events. 

While it is not likely that our customers in Wisconsin will be directly targeted, it is highly likely customers will be impacted by the contingent cyber exposures of a state sponsored retaliatory cyber-attack.   The likely impact would be because the major cloud and network systems our customers depend on would be down:

  • Denial of service attacks
  • Network interruption
  • Contingent business income and sales loss

This is why a true cyber policy that contains coverage for all of this is more important than ever!   

We are being proactive and want to help now before a loss occurs!  

  • Get a quote today and it can be done with a few quick questions: click here to request a quote answering 7 simple questions
  • A true cyber insurance policy is not as expensive as you might think and covers not only direct cyber-attacks but contingent exposures around systems your company depends on.   
  • One of our top carriers also features a reimbursement for upfront cyber defense costs, up to $3,000, on IT risk mitigation to help make IT systems safer and mitigate risk.  

We urge you to please contact Jason Navarro (Director of Cyber Crime) and/or complete the 7 step questionnaire so we can help implement an adequate cyber-program with you.  

Topics: Cyber

Cyber Security in the Public Sector

Posted by Jason Navarro

City Hall in Athens, GeorgiaYou most likely heard the news story recently where a Wisconsin School District was breached and scammed out of $660,000. Yet another example of a local cyber breach making national news.

Unfortunately, Public Sectors have become an easy and frequent target for cyber hackers. Here are a few reasons why:

  1. Employees continue to be the easiest breach point. Cyber criminals only need one employee to slip up, fall for the scam, and unintentionally hand over the keys to an entire network of personal information. 
  2. Less staff are present on a regular basis. The FBI and Law Enforcement have seen an increase in Public Sector groups being targeted when less staff are present, such as nights and weekends.    

Along with having the correct cyber insurance plan in place, R&R has tools and resources to help protect your business - big or small, public or private. We're able to create a custom program focused on 4 key steps:

  1. Employee training (annually)
  2. Internal IT security
  3. Banking protocols for wiring money and financial transactions
  4. Insurance to help keep the business up and running WHEN your organization experiences a cyber loss

Click here to learn more about properly protecting your business or to receive a free Cyber Insurance quote.

 

Topics: Cyber

Fatal Plane Crash in Tom Cruise Movie Serves as Reminder to Review Insurance Policy

Posted by Jason Navarro

tom-cruse-americanmade-trailer-screenshotA 2015 airplane crash killed two men and seriously injured a third during filming of Tom Cruise's upcoming film "American Made".  Whether flying as part of a Hollywood movie production or flying for hobby, this serves as a great reminder not only for aviation consumers but general commercial consumers as well.    

Read full article: Fatal plane crash in Tom Cruise movie leads to insurance fight

Specific to aviation insurance the article  shows why it’s so important to be a “named pilot” and not just meet the open pilot warranty. This provides the protection of insured status at that point without the possibility of an exclusion applying.  

In all types of commercial insurance it’s a good reminder of how important the following points are:  

  1. Proper risk transfer agreements (hold harmless, additional insured and waiver of subrogation)
  2. Review and confirmation that there is adequate limits of insurance with the company you have entered an agreement with.

Have questions regarding coverage on your insurance policy?  Contact a KnowledgeBroker.