Annuity Issuer Parent Company Fights Ransomware Attack

Group 1001 is fighting back against ransomware attackers.

The Zionsville, Indiana-based parent of Delaware Life, Clear Spring Life and other annuity issuers announced Wednesday that after discovering ransomware infiltration on Feb. 9, it called the FBI and has hired outside experts to help it investigate the attack.

“Based on our investigation to date, our forensic experts have confirmed that the ransomware code deployed in our environment has been contained and will not spread to any other internal or external systems,” Group 1001 said. “We did not pay a ransom.”

The company said it has now resumed normal operations.

What It Means

Cybercrooks are still out there looking for outdated software, easy-to-guess passwords and other weaknesses they can use to attack your firm, your clients and your clients’ financial services providers.

Group 1001

Daniel Towriss, a Guggenheim Partners insurance dealmaker, organized an effort to acquire the Sun Life Financial U.S. annuity business in 2012. The group completed the deal in 2013.

Since then, the group has acquired Lackawanna Insurance Group, Community Care Alliance of Illinois and Guggenheim Life. The group changed its name to Group 1001 in 2017.

Group 1001 ended the third quarter of 2022 with about 1,000 employees and $57 billion in assets under management.

The Ransomware Attack

Group 1001 said it’s still working with its regulators to deal with the attack, and that it’s working to make its systems more secure.

“Once our investigation is complete, we will notify any impacted parties as appropriate,” the company said.

“We want to confirm that it is safe to conduct business with us and to communicate with us via email, our website portals, and our call centers,” the company added. “We apologize for any inconvenience and genuinely appreciate your patience and understanding as we worked vigorously to fully restore our computer networks.”

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