The Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division has ruled in favor of Merck in its $1.4 billion claim against the insurance industry for denying payment for damages caused by the 2017 NotPetya cyberattack. Merck did not have separate cyber insurance, and instead relied on the ‘all risks’ element of its property insurance.

According to Merck, within ninety seconds of the initial NotPetya infection, roughly 10,000 machines in its global network were infected by the malware, and over 40,000 machines were ultimately infected across the company globally.

The insurers claimed that the property insurance was subject to a war exclusion clause, and the “exclusion is clear and unambiguous, and it plainly applies to the NotPetya attack.”