Insurers estimate that the global outage caused by CrowdStrike’s faulty update would cost US Fortune 500 companies $5,4bn. The cybersecurity firm has pledged to take steps to prevent this from happening again.
The projected financial loss excludes Microsoft. This tech giant’s systems were severely damaged in the crash.
According to Parametrix, the insurance company, major airlines and companies in the banking and healthcare industries are likely to be the most affected. Total insured Losses of the non-Microsoft Fortune 500 Companies could range between $540m to $1.08bn.
Various industries are still trying to repair the damage CrowdStrike’s outage caused. The outage, described by experts as the biggest IT failure ever, grounded thousands of planes, created chaos in hospitals, and crashed payment systems. The outage showed how the foundations of modern technology are precarious, as a single faulty update can bring down entire operations.
CrowdStrike, a Texas based multi-billion dollar company which has lost 22% of its market value since outage, has apologized repeatedly for the international tech crisis. The company released a report detailing what went wrong with the update on Wednesday.
The failure was primarily caused by an update CrowdStrike released to its Falcon platform. Falcon is a cloud service that protects businesses against cyber-attacks. This update contained a flaw that caused Windows machines to crash in masse.
In its postmortem, CrowdStrike said that it would increase software testing in the future before releasing updates, and that these updates would only be released gradually in order to avoid the widespread failures last week. In the next few weeks, the company plans to release a detailed report on the reasons for the outage.
CrowdStrike was one of the most prominent cyber-security firms in the world and valued at $83bn prior to the outage. According to its website it services 538 Fortune 1000 companies and is active around the globe. This ubiquity meant that the effects of the botched update were particularly severe. It showed how many companies rely on the same products in order to run their operations.
The outage has been particularly difficult for several companies. Delta Air Lines continues to be in turmoil as it cancels or reschedules hundreds of flights. This leaves parents scrambling for their children who are stranded. The US Department of Transportation launched an investigation on Delta Tuesday regarding its handling of this issue.
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