On Tuesday I attended an e-commerce insurance book launch by the Insurance Institute of London in the Old Library at Lloyd's of London.

Insurance Aspects of E-Commerce was drafted by members of the Insurance Institute of London (IIL) Research Study Group 256. It's worth pointing out that "e-commerce" here refers to doing business electronically, rather than the narrower concept of online payments i.e. payment by debit and credit cards. The publication has chapters about:

• the effect of IT on the London insurance markets
• brokers' views on e-risks and e-trading initiatives
• security of e-commerce
• experience in underwriting e-risk insurance
• online third party risks
• first party risks
• regulation of online insurance
• the effects of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002
• review of the current London (i.e. UK) market.

So it not only explores the issues and challenges to underwriters of e-commerce insurance (sometimes also referred to as cyber liability, internet liability insurance, online insurance or e-trading insurance), but also the effect of IT on insurance (e.g. streamlining, standardisation and e-trading), the regulatory background, issues of e-trading for insurers and a thorough, yet jargon-free, explanation of the information security issues. The latter correctly highlights that e-commerce security is not just related to technology—it's a combination of technology, people and culture.

The e-risk factors for businesses seeking e-commerce insurance are described and include the organisation's activities, locations, turnover, number of staff and the scale of its online activities such as direct revenue and traffic (e.g. web site visitors numbers). Increasingly the organisation's risk management framework and disaster recovery plans are a consideration in whether insurance can be obtained and what the premium is.

The publication is worth reading by anyone responsible for a transactional web site—regardless if they are seeking any form of cyber insurance—they have ownership, marketing, compliance, governance or information system responsibilities. Perhaps only the 25 pages of Chapter 7 concerning regulation of online insurance would not be of interest to non-insurance readers.

The 170-page A5 book is available from the IIL for £59+postage, with a discount for IIL and Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) members. ISBN 978-0-900493-88-1.

The European Commission has been discussing whether software developers, and companies providing digital services, should be liable if things go wrong for consumers.

The articles Is Software Liability Part of the [Security] Solution? and EC Wants Software Makers Held Liable for Code discuss the concept of extending the current physical product liability laws the software and digital services. There is certainly a strong consumer protection ethos in the EU which doesn't necessarily exist in other parts of the world. Will we be seeing software product recalls and consumer software litigation sometime soon?

Will this affect online web applications aimed at the consumer market? If this idea becomes reality, then it would probably apply to all types of software regardless of whether it's only accessed on a desktop or over the internet. So web sites would be affected.

Of course, liability for software already exists. Many contracts place requirements on software and software service providers, but this is mainly within the commercial sector. The issue of low-cost, or free, software and services, or software that has been developed as a community project would have to be considered in any legislation. I'm sure we've all heard about cake stalls being banned due to lack of insurance. Let's hope reasonableness prevails and we don't kill off our creative industries.

Have you discussed this with your MEP? Have your say in the European elections on Thursday!