A Sony Insurer Says Hacking Incident Isn't Covered

Wants court to back its position up

2 min read

A Sony Insurer Says Hacking Incident Isn't Covered

A few weeks ago, Tim Schaaff, the president of Sony Network Entertainment said in an interview that the hack attack on Sony that took its Playstation Network offline for a month and cost the company at least $171 million was a "great experience." Mr. Schaaff was quoted in a PC Magazine story as saying:

"We're back online, everything's live again around the world, and the amazing thing through all of this is that the customers have all come back, and network performance is better than ever, sales are better than ever, and we've been very, very pleasantly surprised by the experience. And we're in a place where we're really looking forward again to what's next, what's new, and how we can keep growing the network. It's a pretty crazy event that we went through but we survived, and we're back strong, and ready to go."

Well, the experience only looks like it is going to get better.

Last week, reports Reuters, Zurich American Insurance Co, a unit of Zurich Financial Services, asked the Supreme Court of the State of New York to rule that "it does not have to defend or indemnify Sony against any claims 'asserted in the class-action lawsuits, miscellaneous claims, or potential future actions instituted by any state attorney general.' "

The insurance company is also suing "... units of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, AIG and ACE Ltd, asking the court to clarify their responsibilities under various insurance policies they had written for Sony," Reuters says.

Some 55 class-action lawsuits in the US and 3 in Canada have been filed against Sony, and the company has apparently sent in claims in relation to one or more of these to Zurich American that it wants paid.

Zurich American says in its court filing (PDF) that its policies only cover Sony for "bodily injury, property damage or personal and advertising injury" and none of the lawsuits claim that these have occurred.

The Zurich American lawsuit should keep Mr. Schaaff entertained for the near future, as will no doubt the other 58 class-action lawsuits.

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