Tech outage spurs insurance clients to ready cyber claims

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(Bloomberg) –Marsh, the world’s largest insurance brokerage, said that dozens of its clients are preparing to file claims in the wake of a global computing outage that disrupted airlines, banks and government agencies. 

More than 75 of Marsh’s clients have provided notice to their cyber insurance providers about potential claims, said Meredith Schnur, the company’s cyber practice leader for the US and Canada. 

Although the claims haven’t been filed yet, the notices shed light on the scope of the outage. Affected clients are primarily customers of CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., which triggered much of the chaos with a flawed software update, though some may have suffered losses more indirectly, Schnur said.

Schnur said Marsh began getting notices from businesses about potential claims very early in the morning.

“We’re trying to triage the situation,” she said. “This is absolutely something that is expected to be covered under cyber insurance.”

She added that while many organizations purchase such insurance, not all do. “There are some airlines that have it, and some airlines that don’t,” Schnur said.