As the cybersecurity landscape becomes increasingly complex, organizations must establish business-wide cyber resilience to avoid costly unplanned downtime and data loss.
In partnership withHitachi Vantara
In July 2024, a botched update to the software defenses managed by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused more than 8 million Windows systems to fail. From hospitals to manufacturers, stock markets to retail stores, the outage caused parts of the global economy to grind to a halt. Payment systems were disrupted, broadcasters went off the air, and flights were canceled. In all, the outage is estimated to have caused direct losses of more than $5 billion to Fortune 500 companies. For US air carrier Delta Air Lines, the error exposed the brittleness of its systems. The airline suffered weeks of disruptions, leading to $500 million in losses and 7,000 canceled flights.
The magnitude of the CrowdStrike incident revealed just how interconnected digital systems are, and the extensive vulnerabilities in some companies when confronted with an unexpected occurrence. “On any given day, there could be a major weather event or some event like what happened…with CrowdStrike,” said then-US secretary of transportation Pete Buttigieg on announcing an investigation into how Delta Air Lines handled the incident. “The question is, is your airline prepared to absorb something like that and get back on its feet and take care of customers?”
