Hey, come on down here and get your life insurance. And if you’re a 65 year old male and on medication, you can get it for 100 bucks per month…
You’ve heard these ads on TV and radio, right?
They are really funny. And I guess they’re pretty effective. But don’t be lulled or should I say laughed into believing that everyone is going to qualify for these amazing rates.
Sure, some people are going to qualify for these kinds of rates. But in my experience, a lot of us won’t.
I know I certainly don’t. Then again, maybe I’m hanging out with the wrong type of people.
Anyway, if you’re in the market for life insurance, go into it with a realistic expectation of what it’s actually going to cost. Not everyone is that “A triple plus” prospect.
If you need help looking for life insurance, call my agency at 412-563-2106. We’ll be happy to walk you through the process.
Do you have a real estate title agency or an arbitration mediation company? Did you know that these types of companies can be added to your legal malpractice insurance policy as an additional insured?
Adding them to your legal malpractice policy can be a cost effective method of ensuring that entity against malpractice insurance claims. All carriers have some requirements that the entity must satisfy, but usually those requirements are few.
One requirement that seems to be at the top of all the carrier’s lists is that the entity must be 100% owned by either the firm or the members in the firm. If it is not 100% owned by the firm or the members, the entity cannot be added as an additional insured.
So if you’re in this situation and looking for coverage for that separate entity, consider adding the entity as an additional insured to your legal malpractice policy. It is not a bad option.
It seems like we are getting back to some kind of normalcy with more and more people going back to the office. However, there are still many people working from home.
If you’re in this situation and you have an employee working from home, don’t let your guard down. From a risk management perspective, that person still needs to be supervised, have adequate protection on the computer, printer and scanner that they are using from home.
If they’re remotely accessing your system, make sure their passwords are strong and are changed on a routine basis.
Regular meetings should be conducted by telephone and or zoom type calls. This helps keep everyone connected and on the same page when it comes to the firm’s workflow and processes.
These meetings don’t have to be hours long, nor do they have to be every day, but they should be completed on a consistent and routine basis. So no one gets left behind in the workflow.
Hopefully, this soon will all be a distant memory and we will be back in that office routine. But until then, again, don’t let your guard down when it comes to your offices and your clients’ protection.
With the multitude of ransomware attacks that have been in the news recently, we’ve been receiving various questions surrounding this topic. So, we wanted to clear up any confusion on this topic.
First of all, what is ransomware?
As the name suggests, it is software that can hold your individual computer or your business’ entire system for ransom. A cyber thief will take control of your network and not relinquish control until you have paid the requested amount.
According to Chainanalysis, which is a blockchain research firm, ransomware attacks are up over 340% in the past year. Over $400 million dollars have been paid in ransoms.
The average ransom amount has been on the rise over the past few years. In 2021, the average ransom requested is over $50,000.
Naturally, this leads us to the question of “How does ransomware get on your computer or in your network?”
The most typical way hackers accomplish this is via phishing emails. These emails will pretend to be from an authoritative entity, like your bank or PayPal. In reality, they are just posing as them and hoping to get you to enter your username and password into an online form that they created.
Now, according to security company SecureAuth, more than 50% of people use the same password for multiple accounts. Thus, if a hacker can get one username and password combination from you, there’s a 50% chance that it can be used for all accounts that are associated with you.
Another common way that a ransomware attack occurs is through tricking you or your employees into downloading a piece of malicious software. The download could appear to be a pdf or some other innocuous file type. Once it’s in your system, it works like a virus. It will lock everyone out and demand a payment.
What happens if you refuse to pay?
If you choose not to pay the ransom, there are a few different scenarios that could happen.
Scenario 1 – They move onto the next victim. This is the best-case scenario and leaves you in a position of having to restore your system.
Scenario 2 – They discover that you won’t pay, so they leak private information about you or your clients online. Depending upon what type of data you store, this could prove to be a huge blow to your reputation.
Scenario 3 – They discover that you won’t pay, so they decide to make their money a different way. They sell the private data of you and your clients on the dark web. Again, depending upon what type of data you have, they could make more money this way than if you decided to pay.
So, how can you protect yourself and your business from this type of attack?
There are 5 very clear steps for you to take to accomplish this goal.
Step 1 – Make sure that your entire system is backed up nightly offsite and off-network. You should retain at least 2 weeks of full backups (or a month if you have the digital space). This way, if the code doesn’t attack right away, you have the option of multiple data sets.
Step 2 – Have a plan in place for restoring from a backup in 24 hours or less if possible.
Step 3 – Train your employees to recognize cyber threats in all forms. There are many cyber training programs available that will send tips, tricks and quizzes on a monthly basis.
Step 4 – Keep your antivirus and firewall software up to date. You will see some added protection if you get your employees to use a VPN as well.
Step 5 –No system is impenetrable and many times, human error is the cause. Purchase a standalone cyber insurance policy to guard against this. Most cyber insurance policies cover this type of attack and provide the support to get you back up and running smoothly.
Have questions about any of these steps or how to purchase a cyber policy? Contact INF at 412.563.2106. We can get you a policy in less than a week!
Having trouble getting gas recently? I think we’ve been pretty fortunate in Pennsylvania in that the pipeline shutdown did not hit us too badly.
It does, however, drive home the point that if you haven’t purchased a standalone cyber policy, or at least considered it, you should. Cyber attacks have been on the rise in all sizes and types of industries and professions.
Some of the legal malpractice policies, perhaps even yours may include cyber coverage. Although it is a nice feature and benefit to have in the policy, it usually is nowhere near enough coverage. The limits are usually sub limits lower than your aggregate policy limit. The coverage is limited in scope, and it can dilute the insuring agreement.
Don’t get me wrong. Any added benefits in your insurance policy is usually a good thing. But don’t depend on ancillary coverage to protect your firm and your clients data. You should look into obtaining a standalone cyber policy.
Do you know that more than 50% of cyber attacks are due to employee error and negligence, and part of that negligence and errors are due to the opening of malicious attachments, and the employee’s inability to identify a malicious attachment? Well, I’m here today to give you a few tips on how you and your employees can identify those malicious attachments.
One, always listen to your malware alert. If your email service or your antivirus software tells you not to open the attachment, don’t open the attachment, listen to it!
Two, check out the message. Do you know who actually sent you the attachment? If you don’t know who sent you the attachment, maybe it’s best not to open the attachment. Does the email content actually look normal? Or look like most of the emails that you get? Is it jumbled? Are there misspellings? Is your name misspelled in it? Those are pretty good signs that the attachment is in fact malware.
Check out the attachment file extension. If it is a .exe, don’t open it. That’s an executable file and you do not want to open it in your email. Other attachment file extensions that are most likely malware are the .docm extension, the .xlsm extension and the .pptm extension. If you see those, I wouldn’t open the attachment. Just be careful and think twice before you open any attachment.
And lastly, always, always make sure that your antivirus software is up to date and current.
The first few things that are taken into consideration are your age and your gender.
Beyond that, the big factor is whether or not you use tobacco. Someone who uses tobacco in any capacity is likely going to pay a higher premium than someone who doesn’t.
Beyond tobacco use and your age and gender, your health history does play a role.
If you suffer from any sort of a terminal illness, you likely will not qualify for life insurance. On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re very healthy, you should qualify for a better rate.
What is privacy regulatory claims coverage in a cyber liability policy?
Wow. That’s a mouthful.
The regulatory coverage in a cyber liability policy actually pays for and protects you against the fines and sanctions that may be levied against you from state, local and federal governments for not properly ensuring the data that you’re responsible for.
Don’t get caught, make sure this coverage is in your cyber liability policy.
Does your business include providing notary services for
your clients?
If it does, you may have a potential coverage gap in your
errors and omissions insurance policy.
In the times that we live in today with the COVID virus in
the state mandated social distancing rules and regulations, the notary industry
has come up with what they call RON services, remote online notary services.
This basically allows the notary to perform notary reacts without the signer of
the documents physically appearing in front of the notary. And while this may
be a great thing to do now, during these times, it does pose insurance concerns
and coverage issues.
Most errors and omissions policies which cover notary acts
contain an exclusion or exclusionary wording that prohibits a notary act
without the signer of the documents physically appearing in front of the
notary.
Well, if you are notarizing a document online, obviously the
signer of the document is not physically in front of you. What do you do?
I suggest that you call your insurance broker that sold you
your errors and omissions policy and have him or her confirm with the insurance
carrier, that the RON services will in fact be covered under your policy.
We at Integrity First Corporation have called all the carriers that we deal with for the errors and omissions coverage and they all have answered positively with regards to the remote online notary services. They have confirmed that the policies will respond to the RON services provided that those services have been done in accordance with the state approved guidelines and regulations.
So again, you need to do the same. Call your broker and
confirm that coverage does exist for these types of services in your policy.
Hey, in these crazy times, as employers, we all have employees working from home…and although I’m not going to be able to give you advice on where to go for a good haircut, I am in a position to be able to give you three pretty good tips on how to keep your business information safe when your employees are working from home.
Do They Have a SECURE Internet Connection? TIP 1
First thing you need to do is make sure that your employees
actually are working from a secure internet connection from their house. They
really should be working with a WPA2 connection. And I think most people have
that nowadays at their houses.
But there are some older systems that are still out there being used and they’re using a WEP key, which is not very secure. So, you want to make sure that that they’re not using that.
Do They LOCK Their Computer When They Leave It Unattended? TIP 2
Second thing – Make sure that when your employees are
working from home, that they still actually lock their computer when they are
done for the day (or even leave the room)…so your business data is safe. The
mere fact that they’re working from home and not in your office doesn’t mean
that the information that they’re working with can’t be stolen or mistakenly
sent to somebody.
I mean, a lot of us have little kids running around and
who’s to say you get up and leave, little Johnny comes and starts tapping on
the computer keys, and says “Can I get on Facebook?”
Next thing you know all of your business information is sent to little Johnny’s 150 closest friends. You don’t want to get into that situation.
Do They Have a Separate Work Computer? TIP 3
Lastly, make sure that you give your employees their own computer to work from home. Don’t expect or ask your employees to use their personal computer to do your work. You want to keep church and state separated, so to speak. When they’re working on your business, you want to make sure that they’re using your computer. You don’t want them paying their personal bills on your computer or your business bills on their personal computer…it just doesn’t mix. Not a good thing. We at INF hope these tips help you out.
