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The Lawfare Podcast: Bryan Cunningham on a Federally Funded Backstop for the Cyber Insurance Ecosystem

Jen Patja, Stephanie Pell, Bryan Cunningham
Wednesday, January 11, 2023, 12:00 PM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
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Various press reports have indicated that the Biden administration intends to release its cyber strategy in the coming weeks. The cyber strategy will likely cover a range of issues. One potential topic could involve the creation of a federal response or “backstop” to the financial exposure risks that insurers and reinsurers face from future catastrophic cyber incidents affecting those that they insure. 

To talk about the pros and cons of a federal backstop for the cyber insurance ecosystem, Lawfare senior editor Stephanie Pell sat down with Bryan Cunningham, executive director of the Cybersecurity Research and Policy Institute at the University California, Irvine, who co-authored the article, “Uncle Sam Re: Improving Cyber Hygiene and Increasing Confidence in the Cyber Insurance Ecosystem via Government Backstopping.” They talked about what is keeping cyber insurance executives up at night, why the cyber insurance industry has not incentivized better cyber hygiene by the insured, and how a federally funded backstop could assist in shoring up the cyber insurance ecosystem.


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Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.
Stephanie Pell is a Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Editor at Lawfare. Prior to joining Brookings, she was an Associate Professor and Cyber Ethics Fellow at West Point’s Army Cyber Institute, with a joint appointment to the Department of English and Philosophy. Prior to joining West Point’s faculty, Stephanie served as a Majority Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee. She was also a federal prosecutor for over fourteen years, working as a Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General, as a Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Bryan Cunningham, practicing law at Zweiback, Fiset, & Coleman, LLP, is an international expert in privacy and data protection law, cyber security, trade secrets, employee monitoring, and government surveillance issues. Bryan developed this unique practice through extensive experience in senior U.S. Government intelligence and law enforcement positions. He served as Deputy Legal Adviser to then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. He also served six years in the Clinton Administration, as a senior CIA officer and federal prosecutor. He drafted significant portions of the Homeland Security Act and related legislation, helping to shepherd them through Congress. He was a principal contributor to the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, worked closely with the 9/11 Commission and has provided legal advice to Presidents, National Security Advisors, the National Security Council, and other senior government officials on intelligence, terrorism, cyber security and other related matters. Bryan’s practice has included assisting Fortune 500 and multinational companies to comply with complex, and often conflicting, data protection requirements under U.S. federal law, U.S. state laws, and the numerous specific requirements in the European Union and other overseas jurisdictions. He also has counseled start-ups and other companies in general matters and created and directs a privacy advisory committee for a multi-billion dollar company. As the principal author of legal and ethics chapters in authoritative cyber security textbooks, Bryan is also a frequent media commentator on privacy, cyber security, electronic surveillance, intelligence, and other national security issues. He has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg, ABC, Fox, CNBC, NPR, and PBS, and has been published in numerous national newspapers and overseas publications. Bryan is the current Executive Director of the University of California, Irvine’s Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute. He was founding vice-chair of the American Bar Association Cyber Security Privacy Task Force and was awarded the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement for his work on information issues. He has served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Biodefense Analysis, the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, and the Bipartisan Policy Center Cyber Security Task Force.

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