Many banks, media and airlines experienced the Bluescreen of death this morning once they turned on their Microsoft Windows machines. The dreaded error page with the message “Your device has encountered a problem and needs to restart” was attributable to a single update from Austin, Texas-based CrowdStrike, a Cybersecurity giant with offices in over 170 countries.
The majority (70%) of CrowdStrike’s $900 million in revenue for the quarter ended April got here from its US customersincluding Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
CrowdStrike’s wide reach led to “the biggest IT failure in history,” said some cybersecurity experts Experts |. The update delayed Flights from Delta, United and American Airlines, cancelled planned operations in hospitals in Massachusetts and Ohio, disrupted 911 servicesand impacted other private and non-private sector activities world wide.
George Kurtz, CEO of Crowdstrike. Martina Albertazzi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz wrote in a X-Post On Friday, CrowdStrike said it had found the explanation for the issue and released a fix.
“This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” he stressed, adding that organizations should communicate with CrowdStrike representatives and check the support page.
“Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers,” he added.
CrowdStrike is actively working with customers affected by a defect present in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are usually not affected. This will not be a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed. We…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
In a blog entryhe said: “We know that adversaries and malicious actors will try to exploit such events. I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure you are working with official CrowdStrike representatives.”
Kurtz also continued TODAY and apologized for the disruption and provided more details about what went improper. He explained that the update implemented by CrowdStrike contained a software bug that caused problems with the Microsoft Windows operating system.
“When the systems come back online after the reboot, they will work again,” he said. “Now we are working with each individual customer to make sure we can get them back online.”
When asked how a single content update could bring down the whole lot from emergency services to bank card payment systems world wide without backup, Kurtz said, “We need to go back and see what happened here.”
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CrowdStrike currently is the worldwide market leader in endpoint security or in protecting devices resembling desktops and laptops.
