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Cyber Liability Insurance Claims Attorneys in Houston, Texas

The pandemic brought about various long-lasting changes to the global workforce landscape as it forced more people to work online. As a result of remote work arrangements, cybercriminals became bolder, exploiting employees at home who were unfamiliar with their tactics and often lacked the proper security software.

According to the cybersecurity organization known as Coalition, cybercrime is estimated to cost businesses $1.5 trillion – with a T – every year despite cybersecurity expenditures of $120 billion.

Coalition’s 2020 Cyber Insurance Claims Report shows that cybercrime rose 57 percent in the wake of COVID-19. Ransomware attacks were the most frequent cause of loss at 41 percent, followed by funds transfer loss at 27 percent, and business email compromise at 19 percent – a total of 87 percent of all claims for losses.

Cyber liability insurance is meant to provide protection if your business suffers a loss due to cybercrime, but like all insurance policies, the fine print can come back to haunt you. When you purchase a cyber liability policy, you must ensure that it really protects what you think and hope it will.

If your business in or around Houston, Texas, or in the surrounding areas of Sugar Land, Baytown, Katy, and Pearland, has suffered a loss due to cybercrime and is being denied compensation from your cyber insurance policy, contact McLaurin Law.

McLaurin Law attorneys are familiar with the trick questions and bad faith tactics of insurers and will press your claim aggressively. Texas has an Unfair Claims Practices Act that forces insurance companies to be honest and upfront and honor claims within a specified time frame. Call McLaurin Law so they can assess your situation against the terms of your policy and hold your insurer’s feet to the proverbial fire.

What Is Cyber Liability Insurance?

Cyber liability insurance is a fairly new entry to the insurance industry, and it has often been compared to the Wild West. The policies are as varied and confusing as they are numerous. Basically, a cyber policy is meant to reimburse a business for losses occurring from online operations, whether it be from ransomware demands, outright fund transfer theft, or the hijacking of emails to rob customers – and revenue – from another business.

Exclusions in Policies to Deny Your Claim

As with all insurance plans, exclusions are often enumerated in the policy to give the parent company legal wiggle room to deny your claim. Exclusions you should enquire about – and look for in the fine print – include:

Failure to Maintain Proper Security Standards: Wording in cyber policies varies. Some may require you to adhere to “industry security standards,” which may be otherwise undefined in the policy. Other policies may list “minimum required practices.” Before purchasing the policy, you must get clarification on “industry standards” and be sure to match those and any listed “minimum required practices.” You can also request that the exclusion be removed, which the insurer may very well refuse to do. Keep shopping.

Prior Acts: Your policy will likely preclude claims based on a cybercrime that began before the policy took effect, but was only discovered after the policy’s effective date.

Ransomware Demands: If a hacker takes over your site and demands a ransom to return it to your control, the ransom payment may likely be excluded in your policy.

PCI Fines and Assessments: If your site is hacked and consumer data is stolen – known as a breach of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) – your business may be fined or assessed fees by your credit card processing bank. Your cyber policy may exclude covering your losses due to PCI issues.

Stolen Laptops: If a loss results from a laptop inadvertently left in a coffee shop and picked up by a thief, your insurer may deny coverage (likewise if they steal it by any other means).

Other cybercrimes may also be excluded, including rogue employees who steal data, data culled from dumpster diving, being duped into making a payment from

Cyber Liability Insurance Claims Attorneys in Houston, Texas

Insurance companies are in the business of making money, so they hire claims adjusters to find ways to lowball or outright deny claims. Do not deal with the adjusters by yourself. Rely on the attorneys at McLaurin Law. They have years of experience in dealing with the questions and demands of adjusters. If you have suffered a loss from cybercrime in or around the Houston area and are getting the runaround from your insurer, contact McLaurin Law immediately.