The exact cost of the outage – and who picks up the bill – is expected to take weeks to determine. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

Updated

Jul 23, 2024, 04:33 PM

Published

Jul 23, 2024, 05:00 AM

SINGAPORE – The financial cost of a global tech outage that affected airlines, banks and media outlets on July 19 is estimated by market analysts to cross US$1 billion (S$1.4 billion), with more than 49 million people affected.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg, even as businesses recover and count the costs.

CrowdStrike, the cyber-security firm that issued a faulty software update that saw some 8.5 million Windows devices crashing, faces an uphill battle to regain investor confidence and goodwill from the public. Already, CrowdStrike’s share price has dropped by 17.95 per cent between July 15 and the Nasdaq 4pm closing on July 19.

Perhaps in anticipation of having to foot huge payouts, insurers have seen their stock drop after …