Worldwide computer failure: first estimate of the cost of claims

According to an initial estimate by the insurer Parametrix, the worldwide computer breakdown that affected Microsoft on 19 July 2024 will result in financial losses of 5.4 billion USD.

This cost concerns only the American companies in the Fortune 500 (excluding Microsoft), which groups together the 500 largest companies according to turnover.

The insured damage for American companies is estimated at between 540 million USD and 1.08 billion USD, that is between 10% and 20% of the total cost of the claim.

On the night of 18 to 19 July 2024, a faulty update to the Falcon Sensor software developed by the American cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused the biggest computer breakdown in history.

The incident caused more than 8 million Microsoft Windows-licensed computers around the world to crash, causing major disruption in a number of business sectors.

In terms of value, the health sector was the hardest hit by the outage, with losses estimated at nearly 2 billion USD, followed by banking and air transport.

The bug affected 100% of the Fortune 500 airlines.