Cyber Insurance vs. General Liability: What’s the Difference?

Cyber insurance covers security and privacy incidents; general liability covers bodily injury, property damage and personal or advertising injury you cause to others. If you're hacked, your general liability policy usually won't pay just because a lawsuit follows. Its own insuring agreements and exclusions decide.

A cyber policy can pay your incident-response costs and defend privacy and security claims tied to a covered event. Chubb notes that traditional policies may not be adequate for cyber exposures, and the FTC tells businesses to check cyber coverage directly.

Read your general liability policy for electronic-data, privacy and cyber exclusions, then compare it with the cyber quote's covered events and liability section. Check how each treats injury or physical damage caused by a cyber event, since that's where the two can overlap or both exclude.