Thought Leadership
For many companies across Europe, the possibility of a US-imposed kill switch for cloud services has become one of the most serious threats to business operations.
That is the conclusion of a survey of 1,500 companies in the UK, France, and Germany commissioned by Proton. With many businesses relying on a small number of major US providers for their IT infrastructure, concerns are growing that access to these platforms could be restricted at short notice. In the survey, 74 percent of respondents said they were at least somewhat concerned about such a scenario. Just five percent said they were completely unconcerned. According to Proton, concerns about a potential kill switch are therefore roughly on par with fears of ransomware attacks.
Contingency Plans Remain the Exception
In the event of an actual service shutdown, two thirds of companies said they would consider switching to another provider. UK companies are the most willing to do so, at 75 percent, followed by German companies at 68 percent and French companies at 61 percent. However, only 44 percent have a documented and regularly tested plan in place for such an outage. In most cases, therefore, switching providers would take place without a tested fallback option and under the pressure of an active service disruption.
According to Proton executive Raphaël Auphan, the kill switch is now “no longer an abstract geopolitical concern, but a business continuity crisis.” In his view, concerns about such a scenario are increasingly difficult to distinguish from fears of ransomware. This highlights how seriously digital dependency is now being treated at the executive level. It has effectively moved into the same risk category as criminal attacks, with a comparable sense of urgency and the expectation that it could happen at any time and without warning.
A Single Day of Downtime Could Be Costly
The companies surveyed expect a significant operational impact if access to cloud and online services were cut off. More than half, or 55 percent, believe they could not operate for more than one day without these services before business activities came to a standstill. Across all three countries, respondents identified the same two primary challenges: employees would no longer be able to work productively, and companies would be unable to serve their customers. Both concerns were cited by 36 percent of respondents.
Companies also expect significant financial consequences. Small businesses generally estimate their losses at between €5,000 and just under €10,000 per day of downtime. For midsize companies, estimates range from €10,000 to just under €50,000. Expectations are considerably higher among large enterprises. Some 45 percent anticipate losses of more than €50,000 in a single day, while 29 percent expect losses exceeding €100,000.
Political Background to the Concerns
Proton considers concerns about a US-imposed kill switch to be justified. The study points to repeated criticism from US President Donald Trump of European technology regulation, particularly in the areas of competition law and data privacy. In early 2025, Trump signed a memorandum explicitly aimed at protecting US companies from what it described as “extortion” by foreign regulators. The EU’s Digital Markets Act is specifically cited as an example.
(Editorial Team)
