{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Play It Smart","title":"The $500K Wire That Turns an MSP Into the Defendant","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1986,"description":"A client wires half a million dollars to a criminal. Their cyber policy covers a hundred thousand, maybe two hundred fifty. The plaintiff's attorney does the math and knows exactly who to go after next: the managed service provider (MSP).\n\nJoe Brunsman has watched this from every side. He runs the Brunsman Advisory Group, an insurance brokerage in Annapolis built around MSPs, spent fifteen years with the United States (US) Navy, holds a master's in cybersecurity law, and has dealt with close to a thousand cyber claims.\n\nHis starting point: before 2020, lawsuits against MSPs effectively did not exist. He went looking and found two, one of them an employment claim. Then the plaintiff's bar noticed an industry with no licensing regime, no statutory protections, and clients who lose real money when something breaks. Breach litigation has gone parabolic since, and MSPs are being named as co-defendants.\n\nThe myth he wants dead is claim denial. In 11 years he has never had a cyber claim denied, across close to a thousand claims. Cyber insurance is dirt cheap, the policies are broader than most people fathom, and they pay. What actually sinks MSPs is everything around the policy: an indemnification clause pointing the wrong way, a client who skipped their own cyber policy and plans to sue you instead, a definition of technology services narrower than what you actually do.\n\nSo the episode builds his defense in depth for the business itself: the master services agreement (MSA) first, hold harmless and indemnification done right, contractually requiring clients to carry their own cyber insurance, then your own technology errors and omissions (tech E&O) policy on top. Plus the phrase that matters when artificial intelligence (AI) shows up in a claim: \"including but not limited to.\" And his mutual insurance framing, which turns the client risk conversation into a reason to trust you.\n\nWhat we cover:\n\nWhy MSP lawsuits barely existed before 2020, and what changed\nHow a...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/6-vnBhWGbIbshBWg9R_x1QuxBgHMyYLu3QMWAn9CBmY/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80NmQ4/YWRhNTcxNmU3ZDg1/NGU2NGYwNDY1NGI1/YzY2YS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}