For Immediate Release

Broker Appointment Signals Added Emphasis on Cyber Insurance at Brown & Riding

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (September 8, 2000) - Darla K. Morris, a senior broker with more than 15 years in the professional liability field, has joined the Financial Services Division of Brown & Riding, the expanding wholesale insurance provider which this year logs its twentieth year in business.

Morris assumes a forefront position within a department specializing in not only traditional liability products, but also Cyber Insurance, a field with dramatic implications for companies and insurers in the Internet Age.

"Darla provides us with a unique package of expertise," explains Chris Brown, President of Brown & Riding. "She possesses superior know-how in the more conventional fields, and is also something of an authority in the coverage of e-commerce industries."

"Ten years ago the kind of cyber exposure faced by today's corporations was unheard of," says Brown. "Today, with dramatically increasing reliance on the Internet and intranet infrastructures, maintaining rational protections is an imperative owed to shareholders." He adds, "If American business is a Titanic, e-crime is the lurking iceberg." The iceberg to which Brown refers is any online assault which delivers damage to data and software, interruptions in business, malicious code tampering (hacking), denial of service and wrongful publishing acts. Even a firm's own people can inadvertently wreak havoc with computer programming and processing errors.

The range of firms facing exposure extends to virtually any company that does significant business, or relies substantially on, the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Brown saw Morris' appointment not only as an enhancement to B&R's cyber protection product line, but also of substantial benefit to the Financial Services Division in general. Before developing a specialty in the cyber realm, Morris built her expertise and reputation in the more conventional fields of professional liability, directors' and officers' liability, attorney errors and omissions, architects' and engineers' liability, and employment practices liability.

Prior to signing with B&R, Ms. Morris served as Senior Operations Manager and Broker with International Facilities Insurance Services. Among her other accomplishments at that firm, in oil and gas liability coverage alone she was credited with more than $2.5 million in premium sales.

Brown & Riding Insurance Services, Inc. is a wholesale insurance brokerage headquartered in Los Angeles. B&R, which states a commitment to serve carrier and broker clients by "delivering superior insurance products and solutions with the highest degree of integrity and professional service", will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its founding in October, 2000.

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