Tag Archive for: Cover
Judge Says Insurer Must Cover More Than $100K in Ransomware Payment – USA Herald
This is the case of Yoshida Foods International LLC v. Federal Insurance Co., in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
Yoshida is a teriyaki sauce and soda company known for its line of Asian marinades and cooking sauces, which suffered a ransomware attack in 2021.
Yoshida Foods International LLC purchased insurance from Federal Insurance Co. that included computer fraud coverage under the crime coverage part of its policy.
In March 2021, an unknown hacker gained illegal access to Yoshida’s computer system and used malware to encrypt data in its storage devices, rendering the system unusable.
The anonymous hacker demanded a ransom payment in cryptocurrency in exchange for each decrypting program.
President of Yoshida Foods, Junki Yoshida, used his personal cryptocurrency funds to pay the ransomware of $107,074.20 for the four decryption keys needed, for which the company reimbursed him.
The company then submitted a claim to Federal, but coverage was denied. The insurer’s position was that the company did not sustain a “direct loss” from computer fraud, with its only loss occurring when it reimbursed the company president, who was not personally insured under the policy.
In October 2021 Yoshida filed suit accusing its insurer of bad faith and seeking coverage for its losses. After a litigious court battle, the court ruled in favor of Yoshida finding that the company will be able to seek insurance compensation for money its founder paid from his personal cryptocurrency funds to acquire decryption keys from the anonymous hacker in order to restore his company’s data.
This week, U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez found that the ransomware payment made by Junki Yoshida from his own personal BitCoin funds was an expense that was the result of a direct loss to his company, caused by the hacker, and should be covered by Federal Insurance Co.
Judge Hernandez rebuffed the insurer’s argument that since Junki Yoshida paid the hackers personally and was technically an employee, a contractual exemption for employee-approved transfers applied.
Judge Hernandez wrote in his ruling that “Under the defendant’s reading, if someone held a gun to an employee’s…
Microsoft and Manaaki Whenua to map NZ’s forest cover change
Microsoft and New Zealand Crown Research Institute, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, are teaming up to develop improved detection of land use and forest cover change in New Zealand.
Microsoft says its AI for Good team will work with Manaaki Whenua’s Remote Sensing team to develop models and methods to assess and monitor changes in land use and land cover at scale. The two organisations will use high-resolution satellite imagery, including datasets from the Planetary Computer.
It says those are important elements in assessing carbon stored in New Zealand forests, and improved mapping will help inform decisions and policies for a more sustainable Aotearoa.
“The data from this initiative will have practical applications related to understanding changes in carbon sequestration – the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” says Microsoft’s AI for Good programme’s chief data scientist, Juan Lavista Ferres.
Microsoft says these new mapping approaches can be combined with other carbon models to monitor changes in carbon, helping policymakers, urban planners, and the general community consider how their land use affects New Zealand’s climate change goals.
Manaaki Whenua chief scientist Fiona Carswell says Aotearoa New Zealand has ambitious goals to address climate change, and meeting those goals will require many partnerships and collaborations.
“This project with Microsoft is a strong example of working together to enrich our understanding of te taiao (our environment) today and for our future,” she says.
Additional collaboration with Manaaki Whenua and Microsoft, along with other partners, enterprises, and local communities, will develop research that supports government decision-making and policies related to the care of the land and climate change.
Microsoft says as data becomes ever more available at increasing resolution and frequency, techniques like AI and deep learning open new possibilities for monitoring our environment by mapping and measuring the natural world more frequently and with greater accuracy and confidence.
It says this project is an important step toward realising this aim.
This follows Microsoft’s recent…
Cyber insurance helps cover losses caused by hacking & virus attacks
Cyber liability insurance helps cover losses incurred by a virus attack against gadgets such as laptops, tablets or desktop computers. With the growing prevalence of cyber attacks, getting a computer …