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canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

The Insurance Journal is asking if the NotPetya Windows worm was an act of war [insurancejournal.com]. If so, that would change any potential obligations carried by insurance policies, in this case Merck's. NotPetya took over Windows computers in 2017 but was apparently originally intended to target Ukrainian Windows computers. The rest of the Windows computers may have just been collateral damage.

In all, the attack crippled more than 30,000 laptop and desktop [Windows] computers at the global drugmaker, as well as 7,500 servers, according to a person familiar with the matter. Sales, manufacturing, and research units were all hit. One researcher told a colleague she’d lost 15 years of work. Near Dellapena’s suburban office, a manufacturing facility that supplies vaccines for the U.S. market had ground to a halt. “For two weeks, there was nothing being done,” Dellapena recalls. “Merck is huge. It seemed crazy that something like this could happen.”

Earlier on SN:
Windows 7 and Server 2008 End of Support: What Will Change on 14 January? [soylentnews.org] (2020)
Cyber Insurance claims NotPetya was an act of war [soylentnews.org] (2019)
Original Petya Master Decryption Key Released [soylentnews.org] (2017)

Original Submission