General liability (GL) insurance covers physical injuries and property damage. Cyber liability covers data, networks, and digital operations. They are designed to cover entirely different exposures and most general liability policies explicitly exclude cyber events.
Examples a general liability policy will NOT pay for:
- A ransomware attack that encrypts your systems.
- A phishing-driven wire transfer to a fraudulent account.
- A customer data breach exposing payment cards.
- Lost revenue while a website outage from a DDoS attack runs.
- Regulatory fines from HIPAA or state data-privacy law violations.
Examples a general liability policy WILL pay for:
- A customer slipping and falling at your storefront.
- Damage your operations cause to a third party's property.
- An employee accidentally damaging a client's equipment on-site.
If your business uses computers, stores customer data, or operates online in any meaningful way, a separate cyber liability policy is the right tool.