Did you know that just a few weeks ago a company crashed 8.5 million computers, grounded planes, and shut down medical services around the world?

CrowdStrike is being sued by shareholders for an unspecified amount of money (via BBC) for a recent fiasco that has plunged many IT systems around the world into blue screen hell and left many front-line IT support workers in despair. CrowdStrike's George Kurtz As the CEO points out, the problem was thankfully not a "security incident or cyber attack."

Cyber attack or not, it wreaked havoc in many industries, from healthcare to airports, banks, soccer clubs, etc. CrowdStrike deployed a fix quickly (within two hours), but it was not easy for the company to implement. In fact, according to Kurtz, "over 97%" of systems were back online six days after the incident. One week is a long time in business.

The lawsuit was filed by the Plymouth County Retirees Association, alleging that CrowdStrike made "false and misleading" claims regarding the testing and validation of its software, which ultimately caused "reputational damage and legal risk to CrowdStrike."

CrowdStrike denies the claims. The company told the BBC that it believes the lawsuit is without merit and will vigorously defend the company.

The lawsuit lays out claims regarding CrowdStrike's stock price, which has recently plummeted more than 30% since the failed update. The total value lost is said to be around $25 billion.

The question is not whether CrowdStrike caused the global IT failure. The company has already admitted fault and we know that the problem was caused by an updated file on CrowdStrike's Falcon platform. The question would rather be whether the company misled its shareholders to a reasonably foreseeable financial loss. Texas courts will have to rule on these questions.

One thing is certain: this is probably a screw-up that cannot be solved with a $10 Uber Eats coupon.