Does cyber insurance cover ransomware payments?

Most policies do — though the landscape has tightened. Carriers cover ransom payments but require pre-payment authorization, payment through a sanctioned-jurisdictions-cleared vendor, and increasingly require evidence that the policyholder met baseline controls (MFA, EDR, backups). Some carriers exclude ransomware entirely or sublimit it; others require ransomware-specific endorsements. The market has stabilized after the post-pandemic ransomware spike, but policyholders should confirm ransom coverage scope, sublimit, and any exclusions before binding rather than at incident time.