The importance of maintaining and supporting the cash infrastructure has never seemed more important than in the wake of this week's catastrophic IT outage.
A bug in CrowdStrike's antivirus software, designed to protect Microsoft Windows devices from malicious attacks, caused systems around the world to crash. This single point of failure—one company’s problematic software update—caused a cascade of consequences, with the financial sector among the hardest hit. As always, cash provided a critical lifeline to people where electronic payments were disrupted, a reminder that the growing digital payment network makes cash more important—not less—because it is at the heart of a resilient economy.
“We at the Ligue want to contribute to making the world a safer place. As such, we remind politicians, policymakers, and governments to protect their civilization and economy by ensuring that the cash infrastructure is maintained as a public good and paper and coin-based payments serve as a solid fallback solution when needed,” said Tanja Kulisch-Ziemens, Secretary General of the Ligue’s Cash Chapter.
“Digital currencies should exist alongside cash but can never be a replacement.”
Not counting productivity or reputational damage, some insurers are estimating that this single mistake cost Fortune 500 companies more than $5 billion in direct losses, with only a small fraction covered by cybersecurity insurance.
An inadvertent mistake was the source of this worldwide IT meltdown, but many other risks exist for which cash is needed as a critical backstop. Unlike other payment methods, cash transactions don’t need electronic connections or signals to process—making cash an important firewall against the increase in natural disasters globally and the pervasive threat of human-caused cyberattacks on network infrastructures.
“Cash is an important part of the Ligue’s mission to forge a safer world because it strengthens society’s resilience against a wide range of threats,” said Stefan Huber, The Ligue’s Director General.