British jeweler sues insurance company for non-coverage of $ 7.5 million Bitcoin Ransomware loss

The British multinational jeweler Graff Diamonds Corp. has filed a lawsuit against its insurance company, The Travelers Companies, Inc. (Travelers), for failing to provide compensation after paying $ 7.5 million in Bitcoin to ransomware hackers.

Graff is suing the insurance company over $ 7.5 million BTC loss ransom

According to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, Graff’s security systems were exploited by the infamous Russian hacker gang Conti in September 2021. The breach allowed the group to access data belonging to “high-end” customers, including former US President Donald Trump and the royal families in Saudi Arabia. -Arabia, UAE and Qatar.

After the attack, Conti published 69,000 documents containing the private information of Graff’s clients, while threatening to release more if the billion-dollar jewelry brand did not pay $ 15 million in Bitcoin.

In November 2021, the Graff gang paid 118 BTC (worth $ 7.5 million at the time), half the amount originally requested. The company said it had to pay a ransom to protect its customers.

– The criminals threatened with targeted disclosure of our customers’ private purchases. We were determined to take all possible steps to protect their interests and therefore negotiated a payment that successfully neutralized the threat, a spokesman for Graff said.

After the incident, the company expected the insurance company to cover the losses it incurred from the attack because it was an “insured risk”. However, Graff has not yet received compensation from travelers.

“We are extremely frustrated and disappointed with travelers’ attempts to avoid settling this insured risk. “They have left us no choice but to take these recycling cases to the Supreme Court,” said the goldsmith.

Bitcoin Ransomware attacks on the rise

Meanwhile, Bitcoin ransomware attacks have become commonplace in recent years.

In May 2021, Elliptic, a blockchain security and analytics company, revealed that the infamous cybercrime group DarkSide received $ 90 million in ransom payments.

In June 2021, Kryptopotet reported that the US branch of the world’s largest meat producer, JBS SA, was forced to pay $ 11 million in Bitcoin to hackers to prevent further ransomware attacks on the factories.

Selected image with permission from The Graff