Largest single loss

CrowdStrike mishap could cost up to €1.4 billion

CyberCube, an analysis company specializing in IT security, estimates the insured losses at between 400 million and 1.5 billion dollars.

(Bild: APA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES/MARIO TAMA)

According to initial estimates, the worldwide computer failures caused by an update failure at IT security company CrowdStrike could cost insurers up to 1.5 billion dollars (around 1.4 billion euros). This would be the largest single loss in the still young cyber insurance sector.

Last Friday, a bug in a software update paralyzed computers with Microsoft's Windows operating system worldwide - from banks to airlines. In Austria, some airports and hospitals were disrupted for several hours. 

Big, but not big enough
The insurer Parametrix had estimated the insured losses for the 500 largest companies in the USA alone at between 540 million and 1.08 billion dollars. "This was a major event for the cyber insurance market, but is a far cry from the destructive potential for which large insurers set aside capital," wrote CyberCube, an analysis firm specializing in IT security.

Munich Re is one of the big players in the industry, as is the British specialist insurer Beazley. The latter had already stated that it had no reason to change its expected combined ratio following the IT outage.

Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter explained that in addition to cyber insurance, manager liability policies and other property insurance policies could also be affected by the IT breakdown.