RISK RADAR
Continued
New York
Zurich American Insurance Co. v. Sony Corporation of America, et. al., Case Number 651982-2011
Does a comprehensive general liability policy
cover claims arising out of third party hacking
events? According to a New York case decided in
February 2014, the answer was no. The Sony case
is one of the first to address this issue. The Sony
case arose out of the highly publicized data breach
“
A company relying on
a comprehensive general
liability policy to cover
cyber liabilities does so at
its own risk. Policyholders
can expect the insurance
industry to seize upon the
Sony ruling to limit the
scope of insurance. ... .
”
of Sony’s Playstation Network in April 2011. The
hacking incident resulted in the theft of personal
details from approximately 77 million accounts
and forced Sony to shut off its Playstation Network for approximately 24 days. It still remains as
one of the largest data security breaches in history.
As a result of the Playstation Network hack, approximately 50 to 60 class action lawsuits were
brought against Sony by its customers. Zurich
American, one of the insurance companies that
sold Sony a comprehensive general liability