When Microsoft Goes Down: Cyber Risk & Resilience

Cyberside Chats: Cybersecurity Insights from the Experts

The March 2025 Microsoft Outlook outage left thousands of organizations scrambling. But this wasn’t just an isolated event—recent outages from CrowdStrike, AT&T, and UK banks highlight the systemic risks businesses face. In this episode, we break down the latest Microsoft outage, discuss its impact on cyber insurance, and provide actionable steps to help organizations reduce the risk of business disruption.

Join Sherri Davidoff and Matt Durrin as they discuss the broader implications of such outages, emphasizing the importance of effective risk management, especially for organizations heavily reliant on cloud services.

Actionable Takeaways:

• Develop a Communications Plan – Ensure employees have backup communication methods for cloud service outages.
• Strengthen Vendor Risk Management – Assess dependencies on critical providers and establish alternative solutions.
• Test Business Continuity Plans (BCP) – Run outage simulations to improve response time and decision-making.
• Evaluate Cyber Insurance Coverage – Confirm policies include business interruption coverage, not just cyberattacks.
• Monitor for Early Warnings – Set up alerts for vendor status updates and cybersecurity advisories.
• Reduce Single Points of Failure – Implement multi-cloud or hybrid infrastructure to avoid total reliance on a single provider.

Links & References:

• Microsoft’s Global Outage Coverage (CNBC)
• Cyber Insurance Report – Business Interruption Trends (AM Best)
• CrowdStrike Q4 2025 Earnings Report
• UK Banking System Outage (The Times)
• World Economic Forum Cybersecurity Outlook 2025

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