Lawyers: Insure Against Privacy Breaches and Cybercrime

Lawyers need to make sure that their professional liability insurance specifically covers the costs of privacy breaches and cybercrime.  LawPro has started to tailor products to address these increasingly common threats.  In 2014, LawPro introduced new limited cybercrime coverage into its mandatory policy.  A general exclusion for cybercrime was put into the main LawPro policy and then limited coverage was added by way of an endorsement.

Lawyers need to understand what coverage they have – and what they don’t have.  For example, according to LawPro, “extortion of electronic commerce and business interruptions” are events that are not “naturally” covered by the LawPro policy.  In addition, property policies may not cover data loss because data may not be considered real or personal property.

​In addition to insurance coverage, LawPro encourages lawyers to focus on risk prevention. Law firms need to have the technology, infrastructure, people and policies to both proactively manage the risk of and to detect cybercrimes.  With a plan in place and proper insurance coverage, your firm will be better able to handle the fall-out should the worst happen and a cyberattack occur.