A Further Clarification on Cyber Risk Cover by the Lloyd’s Market Association

cyber-risk

Although cyber risks insurance in the London market is fast growing, more clarity is needed as various types of clauses drafted by different insurers are in use creating an enormous degree of confusion for assureds as to the scope of the cover on offer. With the objective of providing added clarity, from 1 January 2020, Lloyd’s underwriters will be required to clarify whether first-party property damage policies affirm or exclude cyber cover.

This is certainly a positive development and with the aim to assisting in this process, the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) has recently published a number of new clauses for the property and marine markets that can be used with traditional lines of business, e.g. hull & machinery policies, war risks insurance policies for vessels and other offshore structure. It should be noted that clauses published by LMA are designed to act as “models” and are distributed for the guidance of its members, who are free to agree to different conditions or amend as they see fit.

The new clauses published by the LMA comprise a cyber endorsement (LMA5400) and exclusion clause for Property D&F (LMA5401) and a cyber endorsement (LMA5403) and exclusion clause for Marine (LMA5402). All clauses explicitly supersede or replace conflicting policy wording related to cyber loss and data.

Both the property endorsement and exclusion clauses exclude coverage for any cyber loss, as well as any costs related to the use or replacement of data. The endorsement does, however, affirm coverage for physical loss or damage to property caused by fire or explosion that results directly from a cyber incident, as well as coverage for physical damage related to data processing media owned by a policyholder.

The marine clauses, meanwhile, rule out coverage for any loss or expense related to the “failure, error or malfunction of any computer, computer system, computer software programme, code, or process or any other electronic system.” Similarly, they exclude coverage for “the use or operation, as a means for inflicting harm, of any computer, computer system, computer software programme, malicious code, computer virus or process or any other electronic system.” However, marine cyber endorsement clause makes it clear that if the clause is used with policies covering risks of war, civil war, revolution, rebellion, insurrection, or civil strife arising  therefrom, or any hostile act by or against a belligerent power, or terrorism or any person acting from a political motive, the cover will be available for losses arising from the use of any computer, computer system or computer software programme or any other electronic system in the launch and/or guidance system and/or firing mechanism of any weapon or missile.

It should be noted that liability and treaty reinsurance policies will also be required to clarify whether they affirm or exclude cyber cover and these requirements will come into effect in two phases during 2020 and 2021.

Published by

Professor Barış Soyer

Professor Soyer was appointed a lecturer at the School of Law, Swansea University in 2001 and was promoted to readership in 2006 and professorship in 2009. He was appointed Director of the Institute of Shipping and Trade Law at the School of Law, Swansea in October 2010. He was previously a lecturer at the University of Exeter. His postgraduate education was in the University of Southampton from where he obtained his Ph.D degree in 2000. Whilst at Southampton he was also a part-time lecturer and tutor. His principal research interest is in the field of insurance, particularly marine insurance, but his interests extend broadly throughout maritime law and contract law. He is the author of Warranties in Marine Insurance published by Cavendish Publishing (2001), and an impressive list of articles published in elite Journals such as Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, Berkley Journal of International Law, Journal of Contract Law and Journal of Business Law. His first book was the joint winner of the Cavendish Book Prize 2001 and was awarded the British Insurance Law Association Charitable Trust Book Prize in 2002, for the best contribution to insurance literature. A new edition of this book was published in 2006. In 2008, he edited a collection of essays published by Informa evaluating the Law Commissions' Reform Proposals in Insurance Law: Reforming Commercial and Marine Insurance Law. This book has been cited on numerous occasions in the Consultation Reports published by English and Scottish Law Commissions and also by the Irish Law Reform Commission and has been instrumental in shaping the nature of law reform. In recent years, he edited several books in partnership with Professor Tettenborn: Pollution at Sea: Law and Liability, published by Informa in 2012; Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air, published by Informa in 2013 and Offshore Contracts and Liabilities, published by Informa Law from Routledge in 2014. His most recent monograph, Marine Insurance Fraud, was published in 2014 by Informa Law from Routledge. His teaching experience extends to the under- and postgraduate levels, including postgraduate teaching of Carriage of Goods by Sea, Transnational Commercial Law, Marine Insurance, Admiralty Law and Oil and Gas Law. He is one of the editors of the Journal of International Maritime Law and is also on the editorial board of Shipping and Trade Law and Baltic Maritime Law Quarterly. He currently teaches Admiralty Law, Oil and Gas Law and Marine Insurance on the LLM programme and also is the Head of the Department of Postgraduate Legal Studies at Swansea.

Leave a Reply