With the increase in cyber events has come a relative increase in cyber-related litigation.
Litigation has centered on policy language as well as class-actions from employees and customers affected by data breaches.
According to Advisen’s Loss Insight database, the amount of litigated cases has risen in relation to the total amount of cyber cases. Since 2005, the database holds 2,311 litigated cases out of 15,026 cyber events. The number of litigated cases has risen each year since 2005—the baseline year for the frequency index below.
The graph below is made by looking at litigated cases per businesses in each industry. Using this measurement, Transportation & Public Utilities has the highest frequency of litigation, with 220 litigated cases in an industry with about 401,000 businesses in the databases. Services is close behind with 1,200 litigated cases and 2.2 million businesses.
In this way, we can also look at some hotspots for cyber litigation in the US. Putting litigated cases from each state over the total number of businesses in each state, we can see some differences in litigation frequency. The database holds 555 cyber cases in California, which has about 777,000 businesses. Minnesota, home of litigation related to the massive data breach at Target, also turns red due to 75 cases in relation to nearly 122,000 businesses in the state.
Chad Hemenway is Managing Editor of Advisen News. He has more than 15 years of journalist experience at a variety of online, daily, and weekly publications. He has covered P&C insurance news since 2007, and he has experience writing about all P&C lines as well as regulation and litigation. Chad won a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Single Article in 2014 for his coverage of the insurance implications of traumatic brain injuries and Best News Coverage in 2013 for coverage of Superstorm Sandy. Contact Chad at 212.897.4824 or [email protected].
