Insights: The July 2024 global IT outage: a wake-up call by Howden

Planes grounded, banks struggling and the Blue Screen of Death plaguing millions of devices

 

The global outage of IT systems on 19 July 2024 is clearly a major event for impacted businesses and the cyber insurance market. Whilst circumstances of the incident – the timing (coinciding with Asian business hours rather than Europe or U.S.), its non-malicious nature and a rapid patch delivery – may have helped to mitigate the fallout, it offers another example of the cyber insurance market supporting clients through a major event.

But how large will the loss be? And what are the long-term implications?

A large but manageable loss speaks to the cyber market’s progress in recent years

Losses from the outage for the cyber insurance market are expected to be in the range of US$1bn, which would make this the costliest incident on record, and approximately three times the next-biggest systemic loss, 2017’s NotPetya malware outbreak (Figure 1).

Such an array of events recorded in recent years reinforces the value of cyber insurance and vindicates ambitious growth targets for the market as more companies move to buy the product. They also reaffirm the risks around single points of failure and how different sectors of the economy are now interconnected and interdependent.

 

Read the rest of the insight report here: The July 2024 global IT outage: a wake-up call (howdengroup.com)