My Hard Drive is My Home

Members of the ISP-Tech list discuss the difficulties of insuring computer equipment against accidental damage such as a virus that renders a hard drive unusable. Would homeowner's insurance cover it?

[February 21, 2001]

On the ISP-Tech list in February, AW inquired,

"If a virus causes you to have to replace your hard drive or any other computer equipment on your home PC, does homeowner's insurance cover this?"

A number of respondents noted that their policies didn't include such coverage:

[AC offered] "I'm not sure where you are, but in the UK, virus damage is specifically excluded from insurance claims."

[KF agreed] "My homeowner's policy specifically states that virus infection and resulting damages are not recoverable."

Others suggested that such damage wasn't possible:

[SM contended] "That couldn't happen: viruses don't physically damage hardware."

[DP added] "I wouldn't even try to pass along a claim to my insurance company for something like this."

JL raised an additional concern:

"Remember that even if your policy allows for this, it's usually unwise to claim it; you'll pay it back in higher future premiums. Personally, I'd never claim anything costing less than a grand or so on any insurance policy."

PF argued, on the other hand, that physical damage can result from a virus attack:

"Viruses can damage hardware, or at least make it unusable. Back in the early '90s, I remember a few viruses that could fry video cards and monitors with incorrect settings."

BS agreed it's worth looking into:

"My experience is that it depends upon your policy. We've had homeowners policies that simply covered things like this in the past, but that was many years ago. I can't say how long it's been, but things changed somewhere along the line, and now we have to purchase a 'floater' in order to cover our expensive toys. There's nothing to lose by asking: call your insurance agent and ask."

—End