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New Jersey Appellate Court Refuses to Apply Exclusion for 'Hostile/Warlike Action' to NotPetya Cyberattack


The start of this year saw an anticlimactic resolution of an insurance coverage dispute over the application of an exclusion for “hostile or warlike action” to a state-sponsored cyberattack. The dispute was slated to be addressed by the New Jersey Supreme Court before a settlement left in place an Appellate Division decision that held that the exclusion did not apply to a cyberattack on multinational pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Merck & Co. v. ACE Am. Ins., 475 N.J. Super. 420 (App. Div.), leave to appeal granted, 254 N.J. 506 (2023), appeal dismissed, 256 N.J. 190 (2024).