Here’s How Much CrowdStrike’s Tech Outage Caused in Damages

By Danielle Ong

Jul 25, 2024 03:39 AM EDT

Delta Continues Flight Cancellations Days After Global IT Outage, Amounting to $163 Million Loss(Jessica McGowan/Getty Images) (Credit: Getty Image)

Insurers are now beginning to calculate the financial damage caused by CrowdStrike's faulty software update and the subsequent global tech outage, and the estimates currently surpass $1 billion.

On Friday last week, CrowdStrike released a botched security update that led to around 8.5 million Windows-based computers and laptops across the globe displaying the "Blue Screen of Death." The faulty update brought thousands of businesses to a standstill and flights in, out, or within the United States were canceled or delayed due to the outage.

Last week's disruption was described as the largest IT outage in history. Now, insurers for cloud monitoring and insurance firm Parametrix say CrowdStrike's faulty software update cost Fortune 500 companies alone about $5.4 billion.

Which Businesses Saw the Most Financial Losses?

Each company faces varying cost levels. Airlines were the hardest hit companies, losing $143 million per company for a total of $0.86 billion. Software and IT companies lost $112 million, businesses in the finance sector lost $17 million, those in the health industry lost $64 million, and retail stores lost $14 million.

In total, a quarter of Fortune 500 companies were heavily impacted by the global outage, including all airlines in the cohort, and 43% of retailer and wholesaler companies. The disruption also affected roughly three-quarters of health and banking firms.

It is important to note that the estimates did not count any secondary losses attributed to lost productivity or reputational damage.

Industry / Sector	Estimated Direct Financial Loss	Estimated Financial Loss (Per Company)
Health	$1.9B	$64.60M
Banking	$1.15B	$71.84M
Airlines	$0.86B	$143.38M
Software/IT	$0.56B	$112.59M
Retail/Wholesale	$0.47B	$14.73M
Finance	$0.14B	$17.21M
Transportation - Other	$0.07B	$11.10M
Manufacturing	$0.04B	$5.93M
Other	$0.19B	$12.60M
Total	$5.14B	$43.64M

Beyond financial costs, several Fortune 500 companies that use software from CrowdStrike also struggled with long recovery times. Delta Air Lines, for instance, scrambled to recover Tuesday, canceling more than 470 flights and delaying over 1,450 others due to the outage, as of 7:57 pm Eastern Time.

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