As I was browsing the news today, two stories jumped out at me. Courtney Love has agreed to pay off a Texas designer Dawn Simorangkir — to the tune of $430,000 — for remarks Love made on her Twitter feed and on her blog.
Some how or another people have the notion they can say anything online and it’s okay, but the truth is whatever is libelous out here in the “real world” is libelous in here in cyberspace. People are getting in trouble every day for what they Tweet or post on Facebook.
Then I flip over to an article about the growing need for businesses to consider cyber coverage because databases and computer systems, online shops, brokerages — they’re just as important as phsyical factories and warehouses.
Well, thank God. It’s about time. I worked with a guy a few years ago who thought nothing about coming in and reorganizing the desktop on someone’s computer. It. Made. Me. Insane.
He was offended in the extreme when I put a password on my desktop, but I explained to him that in my understanding what he was doing was pouring kerosene on my desk and tosing a match on the pile.
For all the philosophical arguments I’ve had with neo-Luddite friends, this Internet is indeed a “place,” a world that has been created that overlays and interweaves with our physical reality.
What we say here matters. The business we conduct here has value. This is a very new branch of insurance coverage, but one that is overdue and that will develop rapidly. To learn more, read “Cyber Coverage: The New ‘Must-Have’ In The Property & Casualty Portfolio?” by Rick Grimes and Karen Kutger for PropertyCasualty360.com.
And if you’re just a private person with a Twitter account? Watch what you say. Your homeowner’s coverage isn’t going to bail you out for half a million for a that ill-considered Tweet.