A recent technology outage caused by a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike is projected to cost US Fortune 500 companies $5.4 billion, according to insurers. This estimate does not include Microsoft, which also faced widespread system failures due to the crash.
The hardest-hit sectors include banking, healthcare, and major airlines. Insurance losses for non-Microsoft Fortune 500 companies are estimated between $540 million and $1.08 billion.
Various industries are still dealing with the fallout from the outage, which grounded thousands of flights, disrupted hospital operations, and crashed payment systems. Experts describe this incident as the largest IT failure in history, highlighting the vulnerability of modern tech systems to single-point failures.
CrowdStrike, a Texas-based cybersecurity firm, has lost about 22% of its stock market value since the incident and has apologized for the disruption. The company revealed that the failure was due to a bug in an update to its Falcon platform, which caused 8.5 million Windows machines to crash. Moving forward, CrowdStrike plans to enhance software testing and roll out updates gradually to prevent such widespread failures.
Before the outage, CrowdStrike was valued at around $83 billion and served about 538 of the Fortune 1000 companies globally. The extensive reliance on its services made the impact of the outage particularly severe.
Some companies, like Delta Air Lines, are still struggling to recover, with many flights canceled or rescheduled, leaving passengers stranded. The US Department of Transportation has opened an investigation into Delta’s handling of the issue.
