D&O coverage more important than ever. With the rise of data breaches and other cyber-attacks, directors and officers are responsible for making sure that they are taking sufficient steps to protect their company's digital assets. In the case of a data breach, directors can be hit with shareholder suits and shareholder derivative actions claiming that the directors breached their fiduciary duty to the company for failing to put adequate cyber security measures in place. Legal experts predict that there will be more cyber-related D&O lawsuits resulting from increased regulatory oversight. In October 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a disclosure guidance stating that previous disclosure requirements "may impose an obligation" on publicly traded companies "to disclose such risks and incidents." The SEC noted that companies should "review, on an ongoing basis, the adequacy of their disclosure relating to risk analytics. Opportunities for innovation exist within the cyber coverage market. Insurers willing to offer more cyber capacity need to be aware of issues such as insured use of outsourced providers, definitions of computer systems, aggregations, first party breach response capabilities and business interruption event triggers, in their product development. Cyber risks will continue to evolve with each new technological advance and cyber liability policies will in turn be adapted to meet the specific needs of the policyholder. Since companies everywhere, in all industries, from multinational giants to small operations are now exposed to cyber risk, the demand for comprehensive cyber risk insurance coverage will only continue to grow. Click here to register to receive e-mail updates>>