Enterprise Resilience is a Decision Problem

PREVIEW

The Four Questions No One Could Answer

On July 19, 2024, a faulty software update affected 8.5 million Windows systems worldwide. A fix became available quickly, but many machines required manual intervention. Recovery continued for days and, in some cases, weeks.¹

The financial consequences followed. Fortune 500 firms absorbed more than $5.4 billion in direct losses, concentrated in healthcare, banking, and transportation. One major U.S. airline canceled about 7,000 flights, disrupted 1.3 million passengers, and later reported losses above $500 million.²

Five months earlier, in February 2024, a ransomware attack took down the clearinghouse that processes roughly half of all U.S. medical claims. Pharmacies and healthcare providers reverted to manual processes. Claims could not be submitted, payments could not be processed, and the effects continued across the healthcare system for months.