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Ransomware's Challenges for Cyber Insurance, and How to Help Meet Them

Dr. Christopher Ford • November 7, 2021

In November 2021, Dr. Ford  published a new paper at MITRE on the challenges facing the cyber insurance industry as a result of the contemporary epidemic of ransomware.  The Executive Summary this paper is reproduced below, but you can download a PDF of his paper by using the button below. 



Ransomware Insurance Paper


Executive Summary


As the United States faces a veritable “feeding frenzy” of ransomware crime, the insurance sector risks contributing to the problem by subsidizing and encouraging ransomware crime by allowing victims to pass ransom costs on to insurance carriers. This paper outlines how this has been occurring, with the effect that spiraling costs associated with such crime have driven huge premium increases for cyber insurance policyholders and are leaving portions of the insurance sector “teetering on the edge of profitability.” To help meet this challenge and bring the ransomware epidemic under control, changes are clearly needed.


The adoption of a new model of sector-wide cybersecurity risk assessment and mitigation could contribute to this goal, but especially while we still await successful adaptation by the insurance sector, various public policy interventions also deserve evaluation. The following pages outline several such possibilities: banning insurance coverage for ransom payments; strengthening and better tailoring the cybersecurity reviews required for insurance coverage; increased government use of “primary” sanctions against ransomware threat actors coupled with “secondary” ones against those who pay ransoms to them; broader government regulation of the cyber insurance market; and the development of improved data-sharing within the industry and with government stakeholders. As an initial step, in advance of broad agreement upon one or more of those approaches, this paper advocates the development of a new public-private partnership (PPP) framework to facilitate the aggregation and analysis of cybercrime incident, threat activity, and ransom payment-related data in support of risk mitigation, improved actuarial management, law enforcement, and other shared objectives in the fight against cybercrime.




By Dr. Christopher Ford March 15, 2025
Below is the text upon which Dr. Ford drew in making his informal remarks to a March 13, 2025, workshop as part of the “Future of Arms Control Project” sponsored by the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Centre on Conflict, Development & Peacebuilding (CCDP).
By Dr. Christopher Ford February 27, 2025
The National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP) published Dr. Ford's paper " Struggling with The Bomb: Competing Discourses in the Nuclear Disarmament Movement" in February 2025, as the second paper in Volume 5 of its Occasional Papers series. You can find Dr. Ford's paper on NIPP's website here , or use the button below to download a PDF.
By Dr. Christopher Ford and Lord Nigel Biggar February 27, 2025
Dr. Ford and Lord Nigel Biggar published their essay on " Rebutting Sino-Russian Political Discourse and Getting Rights Right" in the Winter 2025 issue of Defense & Strategic Studies Online (DASSO). You can find the DASSO homepage here , read the full second issue of DASSO here , access the Ford/Biggar essay online here , or use the button below to download a PDF of the essay.
By Dr. Christopher Ford February 21, 2025
Below is the text upon which Dr. Ford based his remarks to a conference at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on February 20, 2025.
By Dr. Christopher Ford February 18, 2025
Below is the text upon which Dr. Ford based his remarks on February 18, 2025, to a Track 2 dialogue with Russia on Military Risk Reduction in Europe.
By Dr. Christopher Ford February 6, 2025
On February 6, 2025, the Center for Global Security Research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory published a new edited volume on nuclear weapons challenges in the Middle East. Dr. Ford's paper "Snapping Back and Looking Forward: A New Old Approach to the Iran Nuclear Crisis" appears in that volume. You can find the whole book on CGSR's website here , or use the button below to download Dr. Ford's chapter. 
By Dr. Christopher Ford January 30, 2025
Below is the prepared text upon which Dr. Ford drew in his panel discussion for an even sponsored by the New York State Bar Association on "Nuclear Weapons and International Law" on January 30, 2025.
By Dr. Christopher Ford January 23, 2025
Below is the text upon which Dr. Ford based his remarks to the workshop on “Enhancing Regional Security and Addressing WMD Threats in the Middle East,” held in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on January 23, 2023. 
By Dr. Christopher Ford December 31, 2024
With 2024 hours from being over, here’s a handy compilation of my public work product from the last year. As you can see from the list of seven papers or articles and 20 presentations below, it’s been a big year for nuclear weapons policy and arms control topics – but as always there’s a good helping of strategic competition with China. Keep checking New Paradigms Forum for new material as we move into 2025. And Happy New Year, everyone!
By Dr. Christopher Ford December 24, 2024
Below is an edited and revised version of the remarks Dr. Ford prepared for a CSIS/PONI Workshop on “Irreversibility in Nuclear Disarmament” at Wilton Park, in the United Kingdom, on December 18, 2024.
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