Baltimore City which eventually witnessed a ransomware attack almost 5 months back is said to have purchased two cyber insurance policies worth $10 million each. And the move comes after the city witnessed a database lock-down with a file-encrypting malware where officials witnessed a demand from the hackers to pay $76,000 in Bitcoins to free up the data.
According to sources, the officials from the city of Baltimore were initially forced by their insurance provider to pay up the ransom, when the data recovery from the ransomware attack was estimated to cost them $18 million in expenses and lost revenue.
But officials paid a deaf ear to the demands and went on to approve emergency contracts with IT firms to recover data from May’s ransomware attack. This included $1.3 million for enhanced detection and remediation services, $817,000 for network monitoring equipment installation and $772,000 to recover data and for further investigation on who was behind the attack- taking the total Baltimore ransomware cost to $3.8 Million.
Going forward recently a five-member committee from Baltimore is said to have approved the decision to buy two cyber insurance policies worth $20 million (in combined form) from two companies named Chubb Insurance and AXA XL Insurance making the total Baltimore cyber insurance liabilities cover to $835,000.
An official statement released by the city’s risk management office says it has followed a transparent process of bidding from over 17 insurance providers, out of which Chubb and AXA won the deal. Readers have to notify a fact that the whole activity was carry forwarded under the supervision of Brandon Scott, the President of City Council.
