The global outage caused by a software update of cybersecurity company CrowdStrike affected a quarter of Fortune 500 companies and likely resulted in losses, excluding Microsoft, of around USD5.4 billion, insurance firm Parametrix had estimated.
Parametrix, a provider of business interruption insurance to cover insurance policies for third-party information technology downtime events, issued an impact analysis of the global computer outage caused by faulty interaction between an update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon cybersecurity software and Microsoft Windows.
Companies used CrowdStrike software to detect and prevent hacking attempts.
Parametrix said last week’s global outage underscores the critical reliance of major corporations on cloud services and highlights the systemic risks associated with such disruptions.
Insurance firm said its impact analysis showed that the airline, healthcare and banking sectors were most affected by the glitch, with the healthcare sector bearing the brunt of the losses.
Insured losses, Parametrix said, are projected to range between USD540 million and USD1.08 billion, accounting for 10 percent to 20 percent of the total financial loss.
It is unclear if Philippines companies, including airlines and banks, affected by the glitch are insured against such event.
Parametrix said it focused its impact analysis on Fortune 500 companies since the group “is a key driver of the global economy, and has been a reliable indicator of overall impacts of market events.”
It noted that the analysis is based on more 54 billion data points that define the historical performances of cloud services, extensive experience in system failures and business interruption losses, and direct monitoring of real-time services of the 6,000 leading IT businesses.
