The Microsoft global outage 'powered' by an erroneous update from US cyber security firm Crowdstrike brought a greater part of the world to a standstill. The world was drowned in the 'blue screen of death' when the Microsoft Windows-run systems came to a crash.
Now, according to reports, this outage that affected myriad sectors came at a cost, naturally. According to CNN, among the Fortune 500 companies that were impacted by this development, a cumulative loss in the range of a whopping USD 5 billion or Rs 4,185 crore, was incurred by various industries.
Airlines were not far behind, many US airlines had to halt their operations due to this outage, leaving passengers stranded in airports around the US and in other parts of the world, including India. | Representative image
Healthcare, Banking and Airlines Affected
According to reports, the healthcare and banking sectors, which in many ways are the backbone of the modern economy, were hit the hardest. The vital healthcare sector is said to have incurred losses of USD 1.94 billion. The consequential banking sector lost USD 1.15 billion.
Airlines were not far behind; many American airlines had to halt their operations due to this outage, leaving passengers stranded in airports around the US and in other parts of the world, including India. Indian airlines like Spicejet, Air India and Indigo have announced issues with their operations.
Two of the biggest airlines in not just the US but also in the world at large, American Airlines and United Airlines, suffered losses worth USD 860 million, just on their own. The situation is much worse for Delta Airlines, another major airline that is still struggling to recuperate from the miseries of the global outage.
The headline-breaking outage, according to Crowdstrike, the cyber-security, that is responsible for the event, came to pass, because of a bug. This bug was detected in the company's cloud-based testing system. | X
The Ultimate Update
The headline-breaking outage, according to Crowdstrike, the cyber-security, that is responsible for the event, came to pass, because of a bug. This bug was detected in the company's cloud-based testing system.
According to the company's own investigation, the system ended up allowing the software to be pushed out “despite containing problematic content data.” Although the bad update was rolled back in half an hour, as many as 8.6 million computers around the globe were placated by the turn of events on July 19.
