Coalition rolls out cyber clawback to UK policyholders
Cyber insurer Coalition has recovered £1.4m for a UK policyholder through its new clawback service, which it has replicated in the UK following a similar scheme in the US. Coalition recovered the total sum of £1.4m stolen in a social engineering attack on a law firm in England, which only had cyber cover in place for funds transfer fraud of £250,000.
The clawback service intercepts funds in the banking system before cyberattackers can access the money, which Coalition said makes it the first insurer in the UK to undertake recovery of stolen funds.
Laura Stewart, Coalition’s UK head of claims, said: “As far as we are aware, we are the first cyber insurance provider in the UK to offer this sort of service to claw back money in a funds transfer fraud event.
“While we can’t guarantee that we will be successful in getting all of the stolen funds back every time, we’ve now established a process that will enable us to act immediately, which increases our chances of success.”
Stewart said Coalition has been proactively recovering funds stolen in cyberattacks for US clients for some time. “The UK banking system is different: it moves faster, is harder to navigate, and UK banks are often more reluctant to communicate with third parties,” she said. Coalition has partnered with a financial crime law partner to overcome some of the challenges in working with the banking system.
Tom Draper, Coalition’s managing director for the UK, said: “We continue to add practical value to our Active Cyber Insurance product, helping protect SMEs from cyber events. Funds transfer fraud can be devastating for any business, and adding Coalition’s clawback service to the UK gives us another way to support our policyholders and brokers when their financial livelihoods are on the line.”