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Insurance Coverage Disputes over Data Breaches

By Ellen Farrell and Kathryn Linsky
August 02, 2014

Each day, businesses become progressively more dependent on computers and the Internet to gather, store and protect information. But, as sophisticated as this technology may be, it has also proven to be susceptible to breaches, which have time and again resulted in the unauthorized access of confidential information.

These breaches can be incredibly costly to companies. According to a recent study by Symantec, the average total organizational cost of a data breach to a U.S. company has reached a staggering $5,403,644. See, http://bit.ly/UAbyLI. And, as in the case of the recent Target breach, many millions of individuals have potentially had their personal information compromised, so the cost of a data breach may be many times the Symantec average.

As more companies have experienced data breaches, we have seen an increasing number of disputes over whether insurance policies will help pay for them. In this article, we have compiled cases that have addressed (or are addressing) coverage for these breaches and have divided those cases into three categories: decided, settled and pending. As set forth below, many (but not all) of these cases have focused on whether the breached data was covered property, whether there had been a “personal or advertising injury,” or whether the policyholder's conduct was intentional.

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