Under the Act, if sellers of anti-terrorism technologies (ATT) meet certain requirements, then they can receive two tiers of liability protection
In an August 23, 2013 article, Inside Cybersecurity quoted Venable partner Diz Locaria and associate Andrew Bigart on how liability relief under the SAFETY Act would apply to cyber attacks. Created after 9/11, the SAFETY Act was designed to encourage the development of counterterrorism technologies. Under the Act, if sellers of anti-terrorism technologies (ATT) meet certain requirements, then they can receive two tiers of liability protection – (1) Designation; and (2) Certification.
Locaria and Bigart explained how the SAFETY Act would apply liability limitations in cyber attack situations, saying “perhaps the greatest benefit of either designation or certification... is that the act itself provides that the only proper defendant to a lawsuit arising out of an act of terrorism is the seller.” They added that “customers, clients, subcontractors and vendors that either consume the [technology] or support the seller in deploying the [technology] are immune from liability.”
Because of this vast liability relief, the Certification under the SAFETY Act offers an extraordinary commercial benefit. “As one can imagine, providing customers and potential customers with the benefit of immunizing them from the potentially ruinous costs of terrorism liability would be a tremendous market differentiator,” they concluded.
Inside Cybersecurity cited Locaria and Bigart from an article they published in the April 24, 2013 edition of Law360 entitled “SAFETY Act: A Cybersecurity Win-Win For Gov't, Industry.”