American Kill Switch: 54% of European Companies Could Collapse in Just One Day!

European companies are nearly as worried about being cut off by an American tech supplier as they are about a cyberattack. However, few can withstand such an event for more than a few hours. This is the key finding of a survey conducted by Proton among 1,500 business leaders from the UK, Germany, and France.

The scenario is no longer theoretical since the US Department of Commerce, in June 2026, ordered the suspension of foreign nationals’ access to the most advanced AI models from Anthropic. We analyzed the implications of this with Bernard Benhamou, Secretary General of the Institute for Digital Sovereignty. The survey now measures the effects from the companies’ perspective.

American kill switch as worrying as ransomware

According to Proton, 74% of the leaders surveyed express concern that one of their American tech suppliers might disable their access. This concern is just below the fear of losing access due to a cyberattack or ransomware, as measured by a separate question. Comparing the two does not imply that the risks are considered equal, but it does place a geopolitical threat on the same level as a well-established digital risk.

The details by country reveal a specific concern in France. France is the only one of the three surveyed markets where the fear of a state-originated cutoff exceeds that of cyberattacks, despite 43 million accounts being compromised in 2026. In the UK, the concern for ransomware significantly outweighs others. Germany, on the other hand, shows equal levels of concern, though lower than its neighbors.

This concern is starting to influence purchasing decisions. 56% of leaders indicate that geopolitical risk now factors into their criteria for selecting a technology provider. A little more than two-thirds consider it likely or very likely to switch providers if a foreign government intentionally blocked access to a critical service, while about a quarter of respondents remain undecided.

Continuity plans everywhere, but actual coverage is limited

On paper, preparations are nearly universal. 94% of companies claim to have a business continuity plan, and only 6% state they have none or do not know if one exists. However, the content of these plans varies greatly: 44% of leaders indicate they test theirs regularly, 36% have one but never test it, and 13% describe theirs as informal.

One in ten companies wouldn’t last an hour

Reality proves more challenging. 86% of the surveyed companies have experienced at least one disruption in the past twelve months, whether a technical failure, a cyberattack, or a loss of access to a service. And 54% report they could not continue operations for more than a working day before having to suspend all or part of their activities. Specifically, 10% say their breaking point is less than an hour, and 20% half a day.

Coverage never exceeds a third of systems

The survey’s starkest finding concerns backup solutions, system by system. No tool is covered by more than a third of the surveyed companies. Email leads, with 34% of companies equipped with a continuity solution, making it the highest-scoring system in the study, not the lowest. This is followed by cloud and file storage, two-factor authentication, password managers, and then AI tools. Video conferencing and scheduling are at the bottom, below 20%.

Partial coverage also provides poor protection against the scenario surveyed. A backup provider also subject to U.S. law would remain vulnerable to the same administrative decision, a point that Proton emphasizes in its conclusions.

The cost of a day’s disruption

The stated amounts are estimates, but they offer an insight into financial exposure (see featured image). 29% of large companies expect to lose more than €100,000 for just one day of interruption, with the proportion of anticipated losses increasing in smaller entities.

Beyond turnover, respondents primarily cite operational effects. Being unable to serve clients or provide support is the most mentioned issue, followed by loss of team productivity, inability to communicate, and then inability to issue invoices or collect payments. Disruptions among suppliers are mentioned last, by about one in four respondents.

Sectoral differences are significant. Healthcare providers report the highest disruption rate in messaging, at 35%, and are also most concerned about reputational damage, at 31%. In the business services sector, 40% of respondents believe an interruption would leave them unable to support their clients. The tech and software sector is affected across all categories of impact, as its operations entirely depend on its digital infrastructure.

These results extend a previously documented observation about the concentration of web infrastructures, illustrated by the Cloudflare outage of November 2025. An additional reading point worth noting: the survey was conducted from July 15 to July 24, 2026, just weeks after the Anthropic episode, a context that likely influences the level of concern measured.