Courts Rule in Favor of Merck in Major Cyber Insurance Claim Case

Security Week has written an article covering the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division’s ruling in favor of Merck in the company’s $1.4 billion claim against insurers for the fallout of the NotPetya attack it suffered in 2017. Insurers argued that the property insurance offered to Merck had a war exclusion clause that was “clear and unambiguous, and it plainly applies to the NotPetya attack.”

However, the judges declined to support this interpretation. Merck’s activities as a “non-military company providing commercial services to non-military customers” were determined not to fall under the war clause. This ruling is an interesting development for policyholders during a period where many companies are questioning whether they can trust their cyber insurance policies to apply to the future attacks their networks suffer. Read more at Security Week.