Law Firm Sues Insurer Over Income Loss in Ransomware Attack

A small Rhode Island law firm filed a lawsuit against its insurance company after the insurer refused to pay $700,000 in lost billings following a ransomware attack on the firm, according to a report in the Providence Journal.

Moses Afonso Ryan was hit with a ransomware attack last year after one of its lawyers opened an attachment with malware, according to the report. And although the firm ultimately agreed to pay the cybercriminals the $25,000 ransom to unlock its files, the process took three months as it negotiated the terms, established a bitcoin accoun,t and had to re-negotiate the deal and pay additional bitcoins after the first set of decryption tools failed to work.

During this period, the firm alleges its 10 attorneys were left unproductive, resulting in a loss of $700,000 in billings to the firm, the report states. Sentinel Insurance, however, says it paid the law firm the maximum policy limit of $20,000 for losses sustained from computer viruses and that the firm's loss in business income does not meet its policy requirements, according to a report in the ABA Journal.

Under Sentinel's policy requirements, payments made for lost business income need to be the result of either a physical loss or property damage at the business, the ABA Journal reports.

Read more about the lawsuit here.