Data breach insurer Beazley issued a report Wednesday projecting a fourfold increase in ransomware attacks among its clients over last year, highlighting the growing threat of cyber extortion and serving as a warning to policyholders to ensure they have sufficiently broad insurance coverage to cover ransom payments and response costs, experts say.

The report, which analyzed 1,500 data breaches that Beazley Insurance Co.'s breach response services unit handled in the first nine months of the year, found an explosion in the quantity of attacks attributable to ransomware, a type of malicious software designed to lock companies out of their computer systems and block access to data until a ransom is paid.

With regard to deductibles and sublimits for cyber-extortion claims

"Most of those deductibles and sublimits are capable of negotiation," said Anderson Kill PC shareholder Josh Gold.

"As with anything, it is a matter of cost analysis to make sure you are receiving enough of a benefit to justify paying the additional premium.

With regard to "act of war" or terrorism exclusions contained in many cyber policies.

Gold said that run-of-the-mill, everyday ransomware demands won't fall within the scope of an act-of-war exclusion, given that perpetrators are just looking to make a quick buck. "I don't think the 'war risk' exclusion should ever apply to a ransom claim, because a ransom payment by definition is not a war risk scenario," he said.