XL Group Launches New Cyber and Technology Insurance Policy

XL Group plc, an insurance and reinsurance company, has announced that its cyber and technology business in North America has launched a new insurance policy that extends enhanced protection to businesses that are developing more concerned with cyber and technology risks.

"Businesses don't have to look very long or hard to find instances of cybercrimes and security breaches. It's happening every day - most recently the FBI is investigating several coordinated attacks carried out on several financial institutions that could have resulted in the loss of gigabytes of information including checking account information," according to John Coletti, Chief Underwriting Officer for XL Group's Cyber and Technology insurance business. "As a result, businesses are growing more concerned not only about what the cost of a breach can do to their bottom lines, but what risks it poses to their reputation and customers' trust as well."

XL Group's cyber insurance policy provides both liability and first party protection after a company sustains a data breach, including both the legal and voluntary data breach notification and crisis management costs, loss of business income, costs to recover data, costs to respond to regulatory inquiries or an investigation and costs to defend and indemnify any subsequent third party claims including class action claims. Technological advances in data management are providing businesses with an option to use what was once thought of as useless data or to collect information to improve operations in sorts of ways, such as target marketing. "In many instances businesses are unaware that an activity is conducted in violation of a privacy law. While cyber insurance has largely been about data breach response, our product is designed to protect our insureds should they inadvertently violate a privacy law," said Scott Schleicher, Underwriting Manager for XL Group's Cyber & Technology team. Expanded coverage includes: a coverage extension for outsourced providers including cloud providers; expanded privacy and security protection to include confidential business information in addition to protected health information and personally identifiable information (PII), which now also has a broader definition in the new form; enhanced privacy regulatory coverage, including consumer redress amounts; and payment card industry fines and assessments coverage can be added by endorsement. The product is also designed to respond to technology errors and omissions and media liability acts. XL Group's cyber coverages are provided by, an XL Group insurance company, Indian Harbor Insurance Company. "With new technologies and new uses for them, cyber risks are extending their reach," added Mr Coletti. "To help address businesses concerns more thoroughly, we've broadened our policy terms and added a host of additional coverages to build one of the most comprehensive cyber insurance forms out on the market. Navigating cyber risks are difficult enough, so we've also created a form using clear, understandable language with concise definitions to help our clients understand their protection."