ONLY 19% REVIEWING IMPACT TO CUSTOMERS AFTER CROWDSTRIKE IT OUTAGE

Only 19% of respondents in this week’s Airmic Big Question said their organisations are reviewing the impact to customers following the Crowdstrike IT outage on 19 July.

The results follow the release last Friday of a white paper by Airmic in collaboration with Herbert Smith Freehills, providing guidance on the CrowdStrike outage, insurance implications and priority actions. The paper also highlighted that potential losses from the outage could include losses resulting from liability to third parties as a result of service failures to customers, and the related costs of defending such claims.

Antonia Pegden, Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills, said: “Potential losses from the CrowdStrike IT outage include that resulting from liability to third parties as a result of, for example, service failures to customers, and the related costs of defending such claims. It will likely take some time for these types of losses to materialise, as disputes including within supply chains emerge.”

Julia Graham, CEO of Airmic, said: “We have not been surprised to see cyber risk continue to top the risk polls, as it did as well this year. The CrowdStrike IT outage highlights the importance of effective cyber resilience and third-party supply chain oversight.”

The Airmic Big Question survey, however, also revealed that 33% of respondents said their organisations have not taken additional steps aside from their usual reviews, had the Crowdstrike IT outage not occurred.

Leigh-Anne Slade, Head of Media, Communications and Interest Groups, Airmic, said: “Risk professionals should be monitoring and reviewing risks in real-time, and not merely as a knee-jerk reaction to major disruptive events such as the CrowdStrike IT outage. Nevertheless, there is the important ‘lessons learned’ component following such events that should not be missed.”

Airmic regularly holds Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings for its members, where lessons learned from major disruptive events such as the CrowdStrike IT outage are shared between risk professionals.

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We will be sharing the results of the Airmic Big Question with the press weekly.

You can also find the results here.

Media contact: Leigh Anne Slade
Head of Media, Communications and Interest Groups, Airmic
Leigh-Anne.Slade@Airmic.com
07956 41 78 77