Low OS piracy, Pyongyang links limit insurers' WannaCry costs
The impact on insurers of the global WannaCry ransomware attack was limited by low operating system piracy and the virus's links to Pyongyang, according to a PropertyCasualty360 op-ed by Eduard Goodman, chief privacy officer at CyberScout. The US and Canada weren't hit as hard by the virus thanks to a lower number of pirated and out-of-date Microsoft operating systems. Organisations in North America are also more likely to have cyber insurance, which often mandates up-to-date corporate IT practices. Finally, North Korean perpetrators were thought to be behind the attack, meaning many insurers would avoid paying on policies as terrorist acts are typically excluded.
With the swirl of coverage of the WannaCry ransomware “epidemic,” you might expect an avalanche of claims on cyber insurance policies in the past few weeks.

In fact, CyberScout has seen no more ransomware related claims activity from our U.S. and Canadian operations center than usual.