Protecting Yourself From Social Media

Sign of the times...

The Hartford Enhances Cyber Liability Policy To Address Emerging Online Reputation And Privacy Exposures

The Hartford CyberChoice 2.09^sm expands protection for Web 2.0 and social media liability; offers enhanced coverage for data privacy, notification and credit monitoring expenses; introduces defined term for "rogue employee"

HARTFORD, Conn., Nov 10, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- User-generated content is taking many forms on today's Internet. Whether consumers are posting product reviews to a company's Web site, providing personally identifiable information to receive a special offer, or uploading photos to a social networking site, they're sharing more information about themselves online, which creates both opportunities and liabilities for companies with access to this content. To help midsize and larger businesses address these emerging areas of risk, The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. has enhanced its flagship cyber liability policy.

"We're seeing widespread adoption of social media technologies among businesses in virtually every industry. At the same time, data is becoming increasingly regulated, which is creating new exposures, particularly in the areas of data privacy and reputational risk," said Drew Bartkiewicz, vice president of cyber and new media risk at The Hartford.

With CyberChoice 2.09, The Hartford now offers broader coverage for data privacy breaches and social media liability exposures, such as online defamation, advertising, libel and slander, by employees or casual users of a company's Web site. CyberChoice 2.09 also defines the term "rogue employee" and provides coverage for such employee's misuse of technology.

"Whether an employee's act is intentional or negligent, the viral nature of the Internet means that errors leading to data breaches, defamation of a competitor or the improper use of intellectual property can quickly become very costly to repair," said Bartkiewicz.

CyberChoice 2.09 offers businesses the ability to choose coverage based on their needs. Coverage options include:

• Data Privacy - with a broader definition that offers protection for data breaches by the company or third parties - such as vendors doing work on behalf of the company - involving the loss of personally identifiable information (PPI) or company confidential information. Coverage is also available for breach of data privacy laws involving citizens of European Union countries. Both notification and credit monitoring expenses are available in a single insuring agreement to give businesses greater flexibility in how they respond to data breaches.
• E-media and Internet Liability -which addresses online defamation, advertising, libel and slander-related exposures as well as emerging Web 2.0 liabilities created by casual users of a company's Web site.
• Network Security - for failure of security measures to prevent a denial of service, unauthorized access, theft of electronic data, inadvertent transmission of a virus or other malicious code.
• Infringement of Intellectual Property (IP) Rights - for copyright or trademark liability as it relates to online text, videos, images, blogs and advertising.
• Professional Services - for ancillary errors and omissions, negligent acts performed for others for a fee.
• Network Business Interruption -which replaces loss of income due to a covered network outage or loss.
• Cyber Investigation Expense -forunbudgeted extra expense incurred to investigate a data privacy or network security wrongful act.
• Cyber Extortion - forexpenses incurred in the event of an extortion threat to cause a data privacy or network security wrongful act.

The Hartford: The Hartford : Investor Relations : The Hartford Enhances Cyber Liability Policy To Address Emerging Online Reputation And Privacy Exposures

Comments

[business insurance]

I see that the insruance policy for covers more issues today than before. It is important to know that the insurance companies are up-to-date with the changing winds of this industry.