New Cyber-Breach Exclusions In Standard CGL Policy

Writing on the DRI website, attorney Michael L. Young of HeplerBroom LLC warns against coming to the wrong conclusion from the fact that the insurance industry has added new exclusions addressing cyber-liability or data breach to the standard commercial general liability (CGL) policy. The new language specifically address the “Personal and Advertising Injury Liability” coverage section in most CGL policies. Some policy holders as a result may argue that means older policies without the exclusion therefore do cover cyber-liability and data breach claims, but the writer says that similar arguments in other contexts have had mixed results. Meanwhile, the judge in a recent New York case is the latest to conclude that the personal and advertising injury CGL provision doesn’t cover liabilities created by a third party hacker.