Global tech outage caused by Crowdstrike’s software bug led to disruptions worldwide. Here’s what you need to know.
A global technology outage caused major problems around the world. This outage was traced back to a cybersecurity company called CrowdStrike, which provides anti-cyberattack services to Microsoft and other companies. CrowdStrike is a US cybersecurity firm based in Austin, Texas, founded in 2011. The company has many important customers, including 298 Fortune 500 companies. Their clients also include eight of the top 10 financial services firms, seven of the top 10 manufacturers, six of the top 10 healthcare providers, and eight of the top 10 food companies. CrowdStrike has a history of dealing with big cyberattacks. They were involved in investigating the 2014 Sony Pictures hack and the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee.
What is Crowdstrike’s relationship with Microsoft?
CrowdStrike’s anti-cyberattack software is built right into the Windows operating system, which is made by Microsoft. This means many devices around the world use this software.
How did Crowdstrike cause a global tech outage?
Software that helps protect against cyberattacks needs regular updates to stay effective. Recently, when a company sent out one of these updates, there was a mistake in the code. This mistake caused disruptions in Windows-based systems. Due to this error his error, millions of Windows computers started having serious issues. Many computers began experiencing something called a “bootloop.” This means the computer keeps starting up and shutting down over and over again without stopping. This issue resulted in seeing the “blue screen of death.” This usually means the computer has to restart to fix the issue, also there are chances that crucial data could get lost.
What Crowdstrike CEO has said about the outage?
Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz said the issue was identified shortly after the update was released. Kurtz reported, “We identified this very quickly and remediated the issue. And as systems come back online, as they’re being rebooted, they’re coming back and they’re working.” he further said “Many of the customers are rebooting the system and it’s coming up and (being) operational because we fixed it on our end. Some of the systems that aren’t recovering, we’re working with them. It could be some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover.”
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