U.S. insurance giant Farmers Insurance has disclosed a data breach impacting 1.1 million customers, with BleepingComputer learning that the data was stolen in the widespread Salesforce attacks.

Farmers Insurance is a U.S.-based insurer that provides auto, home, life, and business insurance products. It operates through a network of agents and subsidiaries, serving more than 10 million households nationwide.

The company disclosed the data breach in an advisory on its website, saying that its database at a third-party vendor was breached on May 29, 2025.

“On May 30, 2025, one of Farmers’ third-party vendors alerted Farmers to suspicious activity involving an unauthorized actor accessing one of the vendor’s databases containing Farmers customer information (the “Incident”),” reads the data breach notification on its website.

“The third-party vendor had monitoring tools in place, which allowed the vendor to quickly detect the activity and take appropriate containment measures, including blocking the unauthorized actor. After learning of the activity, Farmers immediately launched a comprehensive investigation to determine the nature and scope of the Incident and notified appropriate law enforcement authorities.”

The company says that its investigation determined that customers’ names, addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, and/or last four digits of Social Security numbers were stolen during the breach.

Farmers began sending data breach notifications to impacted individuals on August 22, with a sample notification [1, 2] shared with the Maine Attorney General’s Office, stating that a combined total of 1,111,386 customers were impacted.

While Farmers did not disclose the name of the third-party vendor, BleepingComputer has learned that the data was stolen in the widespread Salesforce data theft attacks that have impacted numerous organizations this year.

BleepingComputer contacted Farmers with additional questions about the breach and will update the story if we receive a response.

The Salesforce data theft attacks

Since the beginning of the year, threat actors classified as ‘UNC6040’ or ‘UNC6240’ have been conducting social engineering attacks on Salesforce customers.

During these attacks, threat actors conduct voice phishing (vishing) to trick employees into linking a malicious OAuth app with their company’s Salesforce instances.

Once linked, the threat actors used the connection to download and steal the databases, which were then used to extort the company through email.

The extortion demands come from the ShinyHunters cybercrime group, who told BleepingComputer that the attacks involve multiple overlapping threat groups, with each group handling specific tasks to breach Salesforce instances and steal data.

“Like we have said repeatedly already, ShinyHunters and Scattered Spider are one and the same,” ShinyHunters told BleepingComputer.

“They provide us with initial access and we conduct the dump and exfiltration of the Salesforce CRM instances. Just like we did with Snowflake.”

Other companies impacted in these attacks include Google, Cisco, Workday, Adidas, Qantas, Allianz Life, and the LVMH subsidiaries Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Tiffany & Co.

A firm that specializes in allowing people to compare insurance quotes is preparing to hand $19 million to Americans in a new settlement.

QuoteWizard is accused of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by sending text message solicitations to people on the National Do Not Call Registry.

According to the settlement, QuoteWizard is preparing to pay the $19 million without admitting guilt, and the deadline for people to exclude and object to their share is August 5th.

The case was filed by lead plaintiff Joseph Mantha back in 2019, and the final settlement approval hearing is set for September 29th.

No claim form is required for payments, and class members will automatically be paid as long as they don’t exclude themselves.

Class members are expected to receive a minimum of $76 per person, and a dedicated website and toll-free number will be launched with additional details.

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

Threat intelligence researchers are warning of hackers breaching multiple U.S. companies in the insurance industry using all the tactics observed with Scattered Spider activity.

Typically, the threat group has a sector-by-sector focus. Previously, they targeted retail organizations in the United Kingdom and then switched to targets in the same sector in the United States.

“Google Threat Intelligence Group is now aware of multiple intrusions in the US which bear all the hallmarks of Scattered Spider activity. We are now seeing incidents in the insurance industry,” John Hultquist, Chief Analyst at Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG), told BleepingComputer.

Hultquist warns that because the group approaches one sector at a time, “the insurance industry should be on high alert.”

GTIG’s chief researcher says that companies should pay particular attention to potential social engineering attempts on help desk and call centers.

Just this month, two insurance companies disclosed that their systems were impacted by cyberattacks.

Philadelphia Insurance Companies (PHLY) announced that on June 9 it discovered unauthorized access on its network and disconnected the affected systems to stop the attack from spreading.

The outage continues as the company’s website still shows the outage notification.

Erie Insurance also suffered business disruptions that started on June 7. A few days later, the company reported in a filing wiht the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the outage was caused “unusual network activity,” which prompted an immediate protection response for systems and data.

Scattered Spider tactics

Scattered Spider is the name given to a fluid coalition of threat actors that employ sophisticated social engineering attacks to bypass mature security programs.

The group is also tracked as 0ktapus, UNC3944, Scatter Swine, Starfraud, and Muddled Libra, and has been linked to breaches at multiple high-profile organizations that mixed phishing, SIM-swapping, and MFA fatigue/MFA bombing for initial access.

In a later stage of the attack, the group has been observed dropping ransomware like RansomHub, Qilin, and DragonForce.

Defending against Scattered Spider attacks

Organizations defending against this type of threat actor should start with gaining complete visibility across the entire infrastructure, identity systems, and critical management services.

GTIG recommends segregating identities and using strong authentication criteria along with rigorous identity controls for password resets and MFA registration.

Since Scattered Spider relies on social engineering, organizations should educate employees and internal security teams on impersonation attempts via various channels (SMS, phone calls, messaging platforms) that may sometimes include aggressive language to scare the target into compliance.

After hackers breached Marks & Spencer, Co-op, and Harrods retailers in the U.K. this year, the country’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) shared tips for organizations to improve their cybersecurity defenses.

In all three attacks, the threat actor used the same social engineering tactics associated with Scattered Spired and dropped DragonForce ransomware in the final stage.

NCSC’s recommendations include activating two-factor or multi-factor authentication, monitoring for unauthorized logins, and checking if access to Domain Admin, Enterprise Admin, and Cloud Admin accounts is legitimate.

Additionally, the U.K. agency advises that organizations review how the helpdesk service authenticates credentials before resetting them, especially for employees with elevated privileges.

The ability to identify logins from unusual sources (e.g. VPN services from residential ranges) could also help identify a potential attack.

Update [June 17]: Added information about cyberattacks on two insurance companies in the United States.

Insurance companies are reportedly looking to capitalize on the rising incidents of kidnapping and physical violence targeting crypto millionaires. 

NBC News reports that at least three companies that provide insurance and security services for cryptocurrency investors and firms are preparing to offer kidnap and ransom (K&R) insurance policies for those with security concerns stemming from their crypto holdings.

According to Rebecca Rubenfeld, chief operating officer at the crypto insurance firm AnchorWatch, the fear of violence was a big topic at the annual Bitcoin Conference that was held in Las Vegas last week.

“They’re tense. I’m not saying that because I’m trying to sell insurance, but overall, the mood is a very good environment for me.”

AnchorWatch is considering offering kidnapping and ransom protection in the coming months. 

The news comes after a string of reports emerged about the kidnapping of crypto investors. Last month, armed assailants reportedly tried to abduct the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noiza, the CEO of the French crypto exchange platform Paymium, in Paris. 

In another incident, three teenagers allegedly stole $4 million worth of cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from a man who hosted a crypto-related event in Las Vegas and left him stranded at White Hills, Arizona. 

And last week in New York City, a kidnapper allegedly tortured and threatened a crypto investor for three weeks to gain access to his Bitcoin (BTC) wallet. 

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A 1.99%) (BRK.B 1.76%) has crushed the S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.47%) over the last 60 years thanks in part to savvy investment decisions about long-held stocks like American Express and Coca-Cola — and more recently Apple. But Berkshire’s stakes in public companies may no longer be the driving force behind its success.

On May 3 Berkshire published its first-quarter results, which included a new record position in cash, cash equivalents, and investments in U.S. Treasury bills of $342.39 billion. As of May 2, the value of Berkshire’s public equity portfolio was $277.41 billion, or roughly a quarter its market cap of $1.16 trillion. The rest of Berkshire’s value comes from its subsidiaries.

Berkshire has plenty of valuable wholly-owned businesses, from the BNSF railroad to utility giant Berkshire Hathaway Energy. But by far the most important category is its property and casualty (P&C) insurance businesses. At Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, investors had plenty of questions about the future of the P&C businesses: from how they will fare in the face of an onslaught of private equity investment to the changing landscape of insurance in the autonomous age.

Are potential changes in P&C insurance enough to derail the Berkshire Hathaway investment thesis? Here are key takeaways from what Warren Buffett and Berkshire’s vice chairman of insurance operations, Ajit Jain, said during the annual meeting.

Image source: Getty Images.

A changing game

In Q1, income from insurance underwriting and insurance investment combined was $4.23 billion, or a whopping 43.9% of total operating earnings.

As insurance has grown, it has become a bigger topic at Berkshire’s annual meetings. And for good reason, considering its impact on operating earnings.

Berkshire has maintained its focus on the P&C side of the insurance industry — distancing itself from the life insurance business, now dominated by private equity. During the annual meeting, Buffett and Jain said that private equity firms can make a lot of money in that area, but that the leverage and credit risk aren’t appealing to Berkshire anymore from a risk-management standpoint.

Another change to the insurance business has been the rise of autonomous vehicles. An audience member asked if this rise would change the underwriting requirements of the insurance business. Buffett responded, “We expect change in all of our ideas,” welcoming changes in the auto insurance industry. He also said that an annual auto insurance policy from GEICO in the 1950s could cost as little as $40, whereas today, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to have a $2,000 annual policy. Even as the cost of insurance is up some 50-fold, Buffett said that accidents have fallen by more than 80%. So the prospect of autonomous vehicles reducing accidents further doesn’t necessarily jeopardize the insurance investment opportunity.

Jain said that full vehicle autonomy could transform the auto insurance business from concentrating on the risks of operator error to instead focus on the automaker’s errors and omissions in creating autonomous vehicle driving capabilities, which would essentially become a product liability issue. Buffett followed up by reaffirming his confidence that the auto business has been a huge growth industry, saying “We do have unusual advantages in the insurance business that can’t be replicated by the competition.”

It’s worth noting that we’re a long way away from full autonomy on U.S. roadways. As autonomous vehicles make up a larger share of the vehicle mix and encounters between autonomous vehicles and human-driven vehicles rise, it wouldn’t be surprising if insurance becomes an even more profitable business — either through policies controlled by owners of autonomous vehicles, or maybe by the auto manufacturers including a policy with the sale of the vehicle as a value-added option.

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), for example, has gotten into the insurance business through Tesla Real-Time Insurance, which measures a safety score and offers discounts based on whether its “Full Self-Driving” feature is used at least 50% of the time. However, insuring fully autonomous vehicles is a different animal.

Focusing on the long term

Widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles would be a game changer for the P&C business, but it’s an adjustment that the whole industry must adapt to — not just Berkshire. Still, insurance has become a crucial element of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment thesis, so you may want to monitor how technology advancements impact underwriting criteria and Berkshire’s operating earnings.

When looking at Berkshire (as with any company), it’s best to focus on where it will be several years from now, instead of getting too caught up in changes to quarterly or annual results. As Buffett said during Saturday’s annual shareholder meeting, “We don’t do anything based on its impact on quarterly or annual earnings.”

Staying true to this philosophy will likely give Berkshire Hathaway an advantage in navigating vehicle autonomy. The long-term mindset could even lead it to gain market share in the industry, especially if its competitors are more interested in making money quickly than building lasting businesses.

As the blockchain economy grows, so do the risks. Cryptocurrency exchanges face constant cyber threats. DeFi platforms battle smart contract vulnerabilities. NFT marketplaces and DAOs handle large volumes of assets with little traditional oversight. For businesses operating in these decentralized spaces, standard insurance doesn’t go far enough. Enter Web3 insurance.

This guide breaks down two key ideas: first, how insurance is being built to protect Web3 businesses from digital-native risks. Second, how Web3 technologies themselves—like smart contracts and oracles—may reshape the future of insurance as a whole.

What Is Web3 Insurance?

Web3 insurance refers to coverage specifically designed for businesses operating in decentralized digital environments. It includes protection for crypto wallets, DeFi protocols, blockchain developers, and anyone else building or transacting on-chain.

These policies address threats that traditional insurance usually overlooks—like token theft, smart contract failures, governance mishaps, or rapidly shifting legal standards for digital assets.

It’s important to understand that Web3 insurance is not one thing. It’s an evolving category that spans traditional insurers offering new products and decentralized insurance models built on the blockchain.

Who Needs Web3 Insurance?

If you’re working with digital assets, there’s a good chance you do.

Crypto exchanges and wallet providers face constant cyber threats. DeFi platforms manage user funds and depend on the reliability of smart contracts. NFT marketplaces must secure high-value assets and prove authenticity. DAOs handle treasuries and vote on high-stakes decisions.

Even traditional companies exploring blockchain—through tokenized products or NFTs—take on unique risks that conventional coverage often misses.

Whether you’re holding, building, or transacting value on-chain, Web3 insurance offers the kind of protection designed for this environment. It helps you stay resilient in a space where a single error or exploit could mean millions in losses.

What Risks Does It Cover?

Web3 insurance focuses on six major risk categories:

• Digital Asset Theft or Loss: Coverage for crypto, NFTs, or tokenized assets stolen or lost due to hacking or wallet breaches.

• Cyber Threats: Includes data breaches, denial-of-service attacks, and other forms of digital disruption targeting Web3 infrastructure.

• Fraud and Crime: Covers embezzlement, insider theft, social engineering attacks, and other types of unauthorized access or manipulation.

• Regulatory Risks: Helps manage the fallout from changing laws, compliance errors, or regulatory investigations.

• Operational Errors: Addresses losses from mismanagement, governance failures, or other internal breakdowns within protocols or DAOs.

These risks aren’t just technical but often tied to fast-moving innovation, governance experiments, and volatile asset markets.

How Traditional Insurers Are Adapting

Some of the world’s largest insurance brokers and underwriters are entering this space. Aon, for example, has a dedicated Web3 team offering products that cover slashing risks in staking, smart contract flaws, and token custody. They’ve even built capacity for directors and officers (D&O) coverage, specifically for executives in crypto-native firms.

In the Gulf region, Relm and Liva Insurance launched SIGMAWEB3—a comprehensive insurance solution tailored for digital asset companies. Its VARA-compliant version is designed to help crypto firms meet Dubai’s specific regulatory standards.

These products signal growing interest from traditional insurers—but also show how coverage must evolve to suit the realities of decentralized businesses.

How Web3 Could Transform Insurance Itself

While Web3 insurance today focuses on protecting digital businesses, there’s another side of the conversation: how Web3 technology could eventually reshape how insurance is designed, delivered, and governed.

Here’s where things start to shift from what’s already happening to what might happen next.

• Smart Contracts might replace traditional policies with self-executing agreements. In theory, these contracts could handle premium collection, enforce conditions, and issue payouts without human intervention.

• Blockchain Transparency could bring trust to underwriting and claims processing. Every step—from policy activation to claim resolution—could be recorded on-chain for anyone to audit.

• Oracles could feed real-time data into these systems. Imagine flight insurance that pays automatically when a delay is confirmed by an aviation API or a DeFi hack payout that’s triggered the moment funds are drained from a protocol.

• Decentralized Insurance Pools may become more common. Protocols like Nexus Mutual already allow users to pool risk and vote on claims using governance tokens. This community-driven model could expand, especially in areas where conventional insurers are hesitant to offer coverage.

• Token-based incentives could attract liquidity to insurance markets. People might fund risk pools in exchange for yield, just as they do in DeFi lending. At the same time, tokens could offer voting rights on risk assessments or claim decisions.

All of this points toward a version of insurance that’s faster, more transparent, and more aligned with how Web3 operates. Whether these models go mainstream will depend on adoption, regulation, and real-world performance.

Benefits of Each Approach

For Web3 businesses, insurance brings stability to an unpredictable landscape. It enables safer growth, attracts more institutional support, and protects users and stakeholders from high-impact risks.

For insurers, Web3 opens new product categories and potentially more efficient ways to operate. Automation could reduce overhead. Blockchain could reduce fraud. Community involvement could speed up innovation.

But it’s not without trade-offs. Decentralized models must still prove they can be fair, responsive, and legally enforceable. And traditional insurers must continue learning about on-chain systems to remain relevant.

Challenges That Still Remain

The road ahead won’t be smooth (it rarely is). Key hurdles include:

• Legal Uncertainty around how smart contract-based insurance holds up in court

• Complex Risk Modeling in environments with pseudonymous users and constantly changing protocols

• Market Fragmentation, making it hard to compare policies or trust unfamiliar providers

• Slow Governance in community-run models, where voting delays can affect response times

Still, the momentum is real—and so is the demand.

Final Thoughts

Web3 insurance serves two critical functions: it protects digital-first businesses from high-stakes technical and legal risks, and it provides a testing ground for reimagining how insurance itself could work.

One is practical and already in motion. The other is experimental but gaining ground.

If you’re building in Web3, insurance should be part of your toolkit. And if you’re watching this space from the outside, keep an eye on how these ideas evolve. Whether as policyholders or innovators, we’re all part of the shift in how risk is defined, managed, and protected.

An insurance startup that pays out policyholders in Bitcoin (BTC) is now reportedly valued at nearly $200 million after a successful Series A fundraising round.

According to a new report by Fortune, crypto life insurance firm Meanwhile has raised $40 million in its latest fundraising round, bringing its valuation to $190 million.

The fundraising round saw the participation of Bitcoin-focused bank Xapo and Silicon Valley mogul Wences Casares.

Meanwhile operates entirely in Bitcoin, requiring policyholders to pay in BTC while beneficiaries receive payouts in the crypto king as well.

Zach Townsend, Meanwhile’s chief executive and co-founder, told Fortune that the company has doubled its valuation since the 2022 funding round.

Townesend tells Fortune that Meanwhile operates in BTC rather than in fiat currency because Bitcoin limits the risks associated with inflation over the long run.

As stated by the CEO,

“It may feel like the dollar is not as sure a store of value as it might have been in the past. So the idea of storing some value for your kids… in this global, censorship-resistant, decentralized, uncontrollable currency in Bitcoin is very attractive.”

Meanwhile makes its profits by investing the BTC it collects from policyholders in order to fulfill its death benefit obligations.

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

Solana (SOL) creator Anatoly Yakovenko believes Bitcoin’s (BTC) main use case is as insurance for the collapse of a superpower.

In a new thread on the social media platform X, Yakovenko says Bitcoin is an expense and not an investment – something to protect against the possible collapse of a country touting economic and military might.

“BTC has no value. In the best light, it’s insurance. Based on my lifetime priors, there is a 1% chance a superpower will collapse any given year.

It’s worth it for me to spend 1% of my wealth on some asset that might not go to zero in that environment. It’s not an investment, it’s a cost, and there is no guarantee it will work. It’s as good at doing that at $100,000 as it is at $10,000.

If it works, it has very little to do with technology outside of the initial innovation that happened 15 years ago.”

Popular figures in the digital asset space advocate for BTC as a hedge against currency debasement. Yakovenko says he does not contest the thesis because it is aligned with his argument. However, he does not believe that investors should go all in on BTC.

“Currency debasement ~= superpower collapse, same use case – insurance. If it works, it’s because safety and property rights have intrinsic value. They are on the Maslow hierarchy of needs. But it’s not direct.

The worst amount of BTC to own is 100%.”

While Yakovenko thinks that Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, he champions layer-1 blockchains like Solana as they are designed to generate revenue with every transaction.

When asked about the value of coins that require gas to process transactions, Yakovenko says,

“The share of all future capturable fees.”

At time of writing, Bitcoin is trading for $86,236, up over 2% in the past day.

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney