April 05, 2016 - Liberty International Underwriters (LIU), part of Liberty Mutual Insurance, has launched a cyber extortion endorsement to its Product Recall and Contamination insurance policy for food and beverage companies. This endorsement offers coverage to food and beverage policyholders for cyber extortion monies and consultant costs up to the policy sub-limit for acts against production and day-to-day operations. This is one of the only available options in the U.S. marketplace for filling this unique coverage gap.
“With operations being mostly automated now and an increasing reliance on technology, the food and beverage industry faces a very real risk of having its systems hijacked by cyber criminals and held for ransom,” said LIU Senior Vice President of Global Crisis Management, Jane McCarthy. “But what many companies don’t realize is that cyber extortion is not always covered under a typical cyber policy or by a general liability policy. We developed this to address the risks associated with new technology and --‘ransomware’--, malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid. We are proud to be one of the first insurance markets offering this level of protection.”
LIU’s cyber extortion endorsement also gives policyholders pre-incident access to its crisis consultancy -- red24 -- in order to facilitate development of a response-ready plan and enable swift action when an incident occurs.
Ms. McCarthy added: “This new offering is a result of collaboration with our colleagues in Australia, who developed and launched the product in their insurance market in late 2015. Leveraging the expertise of our global organization gives LIU the ability to bring innovative products to the U.S. and fill market needs in ways that other companies cannot.”
Brokers and agents can reach Ms. McCarthy at 212-208-9505 or jane.mccarthy@libertyiu.com
About Liberty International Underwriters
Part of Liberty Mutual Insurance, Liberty International Underwriters (LIU) distributes global specialty lines products and services exclusively through the independent broker network worldwide to insure specialized risk in most countries in the world.
From New York to Melbourne, LIU maintains underwriting consistency that leverages substantial global capacity while giving its underwriters broad local authority to deliver creative solutions that genuinely add value.
Visit www.LIU-USA.com to learn more.
About Liberty Mutual Insurance
Liberty Mutual Insurance helps people preserve and protect what they earn, build, own and cherish. Keeping this promise means we are there when our policyholders throughout the world need us most.
In business since 1912, and headquartered in Boston, Mass., today Liberty Mutual is a diversified insurer with operations in 30 countries and economies around the world. The company is the third largest property and casualty insurer in the U.S. based on 2014 direct written premium as reported by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Liberty Mutual is ranked 78th on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the U.S. based on 2014 revenue. As of December 31, 2015, the company had $121.7 billion in consolidated assets, $102.5 billion in consolidated liabilities, and $37.6 billion in annual consolidated revenue.
Liberty employs more than 50,000 people in approximately 900 offices throughout the world, and we offer a wide range of insurance products and services, including personal automobile, homeowners, accident & health, commercial automobile, general liability, property, surety, workers compensation, group disability, group life, specialty lines, reinsurance, individual life and annuity products.
You can learn more by visiting www.libertymutualinsurance.com
Contact:
Adrianne Kaufmann
617-574-5983
Adrianne.kaufmann@libertymutual.com
