Microsoft Outage Could Drive $300M-$500M Insurance Claims
Morningstar DBRS estimates global insurance claims from the Microsoft outage at $300 million to $500 million, a preliminary figure.
Updated on Nov. 13, 2026 in Cybersecurity
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Morningstar DBRS estimated that the Microsoft outage could trigger global insurance claims of $300 million to $500 million. The estimate is preliminary, and the outage appears to stem from a technical failure rather than a deliberate attack.
Why it matters
Many cyber insurance policies cover only losses caused by malicious cyberattacks, which limits insurers' exposure to nonmalicious technical failures. The comparison with the 2024 CrowdStrike incident, which generated estimated insured losses of up to $1.5 billion, shows how much the cause of an outage can shape insurance claims.
Morningstar DBRS's figure of $300 million to $500 million is a preliminary global estimate of Microsoft outage claims, set against CrowdStrike's estimated insured losses of up to $1.5 billion. The final scale of claims remains unknown because it depends on how long the disruption lasts and on policy waiting periods, deductibles, sublimits and exclusions.
The players
Microsoft
Microsoft is a major American technology company that develops the Windows operating system and cloud services used by businesses and consumers worldwide.
Morningstar DBRS
Morningstar DBRS is a credit rating agency and part of Morningstar, which publishes analysis of credit risk across financial markets, including insurance.
CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company whose faulty 2024 software update caused a large-scale outage affecting Windows devices worldwide.
CyberCube
CyberCube is a cyber risk analytics firm that provides modeling and loss estimates used by insurers to assess cyber exposure.
The details
The CrowdStrike outage was caused by a faulty software update that affected around 8.5 million Windows devices and disrupted airlines, hospitals, banks and retailers, generating insurance claims through flight cancellations, business interruptions and service delays. Insurers' responses to the Microsoft outage will depend on policy terms, including waiting periods before business interruption cover takes effect.
Timeline
2024: CrowdStrike faulty software update outage affects Windows devices worldwide.
- 2026-11-13
Morningstar DBRS publishes its insurance estimate for the Microsoft outage.
The Tech Race
The Microsoft outage's preliminary claims estimate is set against the 2024 CrowdStrike faulty software update, which generated estimated insured losses of up to $1.5 billion. Because the Microsoft outage appears to be a technical failure rather than a deliberate attack, its insurance impact is expected to be smaller than CrowdStrike's.
Businesses that rely on Microsoft services may face business interruption if an outage lasts, and their insurance may not respond if the cause is a technical failure rather than a malicious attack. Checking policy waiting periods and whether nonmalicious failures are covered can clarify what a company can recover.
The takeaway
Insurance coverage for cyber incidents depends heavily on whether a disruption is malicious or accidental. Reviewing policy exclusions and waiting periods now can prevent surprises if an outage occurs.
Further reading
Explore more on Cybersecurity to see how outages and attacks affect insurers and businesses.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Αποκαλυπτικό ρεπορτάζ, αρθρογραφία και άμεση ενημέρωση, με όλα τα τελευταία νέα και ειδήσεις για την Οικονομία, τις Επιχειρήσεις, το Χρηματιστήριο, το Bitcoin, τις πολιτικές εξελίξεις και τον πολιτισμό.
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