Why Microsoft Outage Will Test Cyber Insurance Policies
Following a massive Microsoft outage, insurers and forensic accountants face complex battles over business-disruption claims. The post Why Microsoft Outage Will Test Cyber Insurance Policies appeared first on Global Finance Magazine .
Microsoft's multi-day outage, starting on November 12, is prompting treasuries to estimate losses as the tech giant restores services like Copilot, Microsoft 365, Outlook, and Teams. Executive vice president Charles Lamanna reported encouraging progress, with service availability and email delivery improving. However, platform outages at providers like Microsoft can create aggregated exposure across cyber insurance policies, according to Sasha Romanosky, a senior policy researcher at RAND Corp. Various modeling companies have estimated the risk using data from other cloud outages to gauge potential losses.
The lengthy outage will be crucial in determining the loss curve, as it may not be a simple 10 times the loss of a shorter outage. Joshua Gold, a partner at Anderson Kill, explained that cyber insurance covers system disruption, either regardless of the cause or only when caused by a cyber threat actor. Insurance carriers often argue that policyholders ultimately make up for losses through subsidiaries, making business-disruption claims difficult to substantiate.
Gold advised companies to notify their carriers promptly, provide an overview of the event and lingering issues, and maintain constant dialogue with the insurer.
Written by urgent.news from Global Finance's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
