As the number of security breach incidents and privacy violations continues to increase, so too has the volume of lawsuits—particularly class action lawsuits—seeking damages for actual and future harms resulting from unauthorized disclosures of personal information. Affected companies have looked to their traditional insurance coverage to defray costs associated with responding to these incidents and lawsuits, but standardized commercial general liability policies may not provide adequate coverage.

In a recent article entitled That Was a Secret! – Insurance Coverage for Privacy Violation Lawsuits, co-author William T. Um, counsel at Hunton & Williams LLP, explores insurance recovery for defending against myriad class action lawsuits following data breach and privacy violations.