Educational institutions face evolving risks across property, casualty and cyber liability. Learn how to school districts should be covered for casulty, property, cyber, and SAM insurance.
In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law to give disabled people the same access to American life as those without disabilities. The Act is intended to give equal access to all Americans to all public spaces. The law was initially thought of as only applying to brick and mortar locations and couldn’t address access to the Internet since the Internet wasn’t fully commercialized until 1995. However, in response to a landmark case in Florida (Gil v. Winn Dixie), the court declared that Title III requirements of the law apply if the website is ‘heavily integrated’… Read More »Is Your Website Compliant with ADA
One click is all it takes to order goods, exchange payment, and have the items shipped and delivered to a doorstep within hours.
But what happens when that one click is not used to facilitate commerce but rather used to intentionally or even accidentally disrupt a network? When one click releases a malicious code causing an assembly line to come to a screeching halt? When one click transfers millions of dollars to a fraudulent account? When one click by a rogue employee disseminates the contents of personal files to the public? In these instances, who is ultimately responsible?
In recent cases, fingers have pointed directly at the board of directors. Since 2013, several shareholder derivative suits have been filed following network security breaches. Defendants have included Home Depot, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, Target, Wyndham, and Wendy’s. Technology is changing at a rapid pace, and it is clear that consumers and shareholders have high expectations for businesses and those who run them.
Allegations in these network security cases have included breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, breach of implied contract, and violation of various state and federal statutes. Interestingly, most of the aforementioned cases have been dismissed (or settled) – apart from Wendy’s, which is still in its early stages. These dismissals are showing that the plaintiffs are having difficulty: (1) proving corporate mismanagement as a direct cause of harm from a data breach, and (2) showing actual compensatory injuries as a direct result of the breach. Courts have been dismissing cases in which actual damages have not been proven.Read More »Cyber Liability and D&O
News of cyber-crime and instances of massive data breaches are increasing each year. The headlines have been grabbed by major data breaches at discount retail chains, restaurant chains, financial institutions, video game developers, health care providers, government agencies and more. The Pew Research Center estimated this year that 18 percent of adults who engage in online activities have been the victims of stolen information, including Social Security numbers, addresses, or banking information – an increase from 11 percent in 2013.
And with each instance comes increased awareness of the need for cyber liability coverage, a painful but important lesson in the ways 21st century crime can infiltrate a business – and its customers’ wallets. These infringements are happening with increasing regularity, breeding mistrust among consumers and wreaking havoc with companies that are left scrambling to pick up the pieces from these financial (and public relations) disasters. As a result, some estimates indicate that cyber liability insurance sales will double in 2014 from $1 billion just last year.Read More »Cyber Liability Coverage for Non-Profits