Red padlock with the word "Ransomware" in white over a blue background filled with binary code.

CISA/FBI Holiday Cyber Advisory

As air travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend spiked to pre-pandemic levels and AAA estimates over 53 million people will hit the road this holiday, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and FBI issued an advisory yesterday, warning critical infrastructure partners that malicious cyber actors tend to strike during holiday weekends. “Although neither CISA nor the FBI currently have identified any specific threats, recent 2021 trends show malicious cyber actors launching serious and impactful ransomware attacks during holidays and weekends.” This advisory, once again, emphasizes the importance of organizations being vigilant and taking proactive measures to minimize the risk and impact of a potential cyber-attack, which, based on 2021 trends, seems

The ALS Group November 23, 2021

Additional Insured Vs. Named Insured on a Liability Insurance Policy

Email has been a part of our everyday life for quite some time now. These days with some restrictions imposed on face-to-face interaction, email has become an effective way to communicate. As a result of this the number of emails sent and received daily has been steadily increasing each year. According to Campaign Monitor an average person sends and receives 121 business emails per day. While, this is an effective way to communicate, handling such an amount of emails can become a challenge if one does not have a strategy of how to manage them. Managing incoming emails and ensuring that emails you send are effective is important in this

The ALS Group November 16, 2021

Effective Email Risk Management

Email has been a part of our everyday life for quite some time now. These days, with some restrictions imposed on face-to-face interaction, email has become an effective way to communicate. As a result of this, the number of emails sent and received daily steadily increases each year. According to Campaign Monitor, an average person sends and receives 121 business emails per day. While this is an effective way to communicate, handling such an amount of emails can become a challenge if one does not have a strategy for managing them. Managing incoming emails and ensuring that emails you send are effective is important in this digital age. A few

The ALS Group November 10, 2021

A green road sign with the bold text "CYBER CRIME" stands out against a cloudy sky background

OFAC Advisory Makes Paying Cyber Extortion Ransom Illegal

Cyber Extortion Ransom Illegal Ransomware continues to be a major issue for companies regardless of size. It may be hard to believe, but the reason for this lies with the victims. The quickest and most often used resolution to the attack is to pay the ransom. While paying the ransom may resolve a problem for an organization, it encourages cyber criminals to continue the attacks. To combat it, OFAC, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, issued an Advisory in October 2020 stating that paying the ransom to a malicious actor in a ransomware event could land a company in hot water; and by hot water

The ALS Group September 29, 2021

How Long Should you Keep your Insurance Policies?

As, risk managers, we often get asked by clients, “what is the appropriate period to retain insurance policies” – the easy answer is “forever”… You are probably thinking that guidance seems a bit excessive, however quite a few types of policies, such as commercial general liability, may be triggered long after the policy has expired and thus should not be discarded but rather meticulously tracked.

The ALS Group September 14, 2021

A person sits at a desk with their head in their hands displaying a ransomware message highlighting the severe consequences of cyber risk.

Top Ransomware Prevention Tips to Safeguard Your Business

Five Tips to Help Prevent Ransomware Attacks As businesses become more aware of the dangers posed by cyber-attacks and ransomware, they are enhancing their IT security tools and practices. However, cybercriminals constantly evolve, devising new tactics to breach systems and steal valuable data. Compounding the issue, the costs associated with cyber breaches are rising. According to Ponemon’s 2019 Cost of a Data Breach study, breaches originating from malicious cyber-attacks were not only the most common but also the most expensive. Here are five updated tips to help protect your organization from ransomware and other cyber threats: 1. Strong Passwords Are Not Enough—Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) While strong passwords are essential,

The ALS Group July 8, 2021

Several holiday-themed gift bags, including one with the text "Tis the Season," are arranged on a wooden floor, containing wrapped presents.

The ALS Group – The Team Gives Back!

The ALS Team partnered with Bridges of Hope, Staten Island to collect and donate gifts for families who are coping with a particularly difficult holiday season. Bridges of Hope was started by Grace Murphy in 1998 as a parish social-action outreach effort to create a “bridge” between the community and families in public housing.

The ALS Group December 14, 2020

A glowing green padlock icon is embedded within a digital circuit board design, symbolizing cybersecurity and data protection.

Ransomware Demands Spike Due to Pandemic

As companies had to quickly pivot and implement a remote work plan (a lot of them did not have such a plan in place) due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they became more at risk for a cyber attack and/or breach due to the vulnerabilities they did not even know they had. As a result of this there has been an uptick in the success rate of cyber attacks in the United States. Coalition Inc., a cyber insurance provider, recently released their H1 2020 Cyber Insurance Claims report that noted a decrease in the frequency of ransomware claims however, its policyholders have experienced a 100% increase in average demands from

The ALS Group October 12, 2020

Managing Risks and Opportunities

The idea for this blog was conceived by Marshall Ma, who joined The ALS Group as a Risk Management Intern and now provides support on client accounts as Technical Analyst, based on the Chinese ideogram for “crisis”. It just happens that Marshall is fluent in Mandarin and is passionate about risk management. She is an Enterprise Risk Management Graduate and Lecturer at Columbia University. While at Columbia, Marshall spent a lot of time working on campus educating her peers and supporting industry outreach. She also participated in risk assessment and mitigation for the campus’ internal Career Design Lab.

The ALS Group September 23, 2020

Three people working at desks providing top-notch risk management services in Florida.

The Transition Back to the Office

As restrictions due to COVID-19 are slowly lifted, many businesses that have been, either, shut down or had their employees work remotely, are thinking of when and how to re-open and bring their workforce back safely. One of the biggest challenges facing business owners making this type of decision, is how does one manage this new, challenging and invisible risk (risk of COVID transmission), while ensuring your team’s productivity remains high.

The ALS Group September 8, 2020

Our areas of expertise include:

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)
Cyber Security & Cyber Liability Insurance
Construction Management
Customized Risk Management Assessments (RMAs)

The ALS Group Risk Management Articles

CISA/FBI Holiday Cyber Advisory

Additional Insured Vs. Named Insured on a Liability Insurance Policy

Effective Email Risk Management

OFAC Advisory Makes Paying Cyber Extortion Ransom Illegal

How Long Should you Keep your Insurance Policies?

Top Ransomware Prevention Tips to Safeguard Your Business

The ALS Group – The Team Gives Back!

Ransomware Demands Spike Due to Pandemic

Managing Risks and Opportunities

The Transition Back to the Office

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