The American branch of international commercial insurance company Zurich isn't too fond of the idea that it's expected to foot some of the massive bill accumulated by client Sony following the PlayStation Network debacle that compromised over 77 million customers' personal information in April. So, it's doing what any global insurer would do when faced with what's perceived as specious filings: go to court and try to get out of paying them.
Reuters reported last week on Zurich in North America's not-so-novel attempt to avoid chipping in to help Sony offset costs associated with the PSN's highly-publicized "external intrusion." According to the site, Zurich's lawyers argued that the current insurance policy between the pair does not cover any class-action lawsuits leveled against Sony for the data breach (Zurich claims 55 presently exist in the U.S. alone) that seek monetary damages. Additionally, the firm does not believe it's responsible for covering other "miscellaneous claims" related to the hacker attack that shut down Sony's online infrastructure, which services both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable users, for several weeks.
Sony has filed insurance claims nonetheless, seeking what it believes is fair coverage under previously agreed upon terms. The Japan-based corporation estimated in May that it could end up spending over $170 million to rectify repercussions from the cyber break-in when all is said and done.
One such method to regain consumer trust was Sony's "Welcome Back" program, which sought to trade various freebies for a collective "apology accepted" from its user base. The company also offered 12 months of identity theft protection to affected PSN customers - a service that was recently extended until the end of July.
We'll bring more on this latest wrinkle in Sony's ongoing post-PSN hacking recovery effort as it develops.
