8 major IT disasters of 2024 [Video]

Major CrowdStrike outage overshadowed most other IT problems, but this year also saw IT systems accusing employees of theft, and PC makers shipping devices with malware.

Credit: Arjuna Kodisinghe / Shutterstock

The past year was filled with big IT news: The hype surrounding AI and its widespread adoption, huge numbers of tech industry layoffs, major cyberattacks, and major mergers.

Like most years, 2024 also saw its share of IT disasters. Some were forgotten within days or weeks, but others have had long-lasting effects, with damages running into the billions of dollars in one case.

For this list, we’ve largely ignored data breaches, with other lists available for those interested. And we’ve already published a list of recent AI failures, several of which happened in the past year. Fast food giant McDonald’s, for example, dumped an AI-based ordering system in June after it wouldn’t stop adding food to customer bills.

[ For past IT mishaps of note, see our biggest IT failure …