Mondelez, the US Food Company That Owns Oreo and Cadbury Brands, Sues Zurich in Test For Cyber Hack Insurance

Mondelez, the US food company that owns the Oreo and Cadbury brands, is suing its insurance company, Zurich, for refusing to pay out on a $100m claim for damage caused by the NotPetya cyber attack. From a report: The case will be the first serious legal dispute over how companies can recover the costs of a cyber attack [Editor's note: the article may be paywalled; alternative source], as insurance groups seek to tightly define their liabilities. 'It's a pretty big deal. I've never seen an insurance company take this position,' said Robert Stines, a cyber law specialist at the US law firm Freeborn. 'It's going to send ripples through the insurance industry. Major companies are going to rethink what's in their policies.' The NotPetya attack in the summer of 2017 crippled the computer systems of companies around the world, including Merck, the pharmaceuticals company, Reckitt Benckiser, the consumer group, and Maersk, the world's largest shipping group. It caused billions of dollars of damage and has been blamed by the US and the UK on Russian hackers attacking the Ukrainian government.

According to the Mondelez court documents, Zurich initially worked to adjust the claim in the usual way and at one point even promised to make a $10m interim payment. But it later refused to pay, relying on an exclusion in the policy for 'a hostile or warlike action' by a government or sovereign power or people acting for them. Mondelez described Zurich's refusal as 'unprecedented' and is seeking $100m in damages. Both companies declined to comment on the case.

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