Editor’s Note: In an unprecedented event, a recent update from CrowdStrike has led to a significant global IT outage, impacting industries across the board—from airlines and banks to healthcare providers and broadcasters. This article delves into the far-reaching consequences of the incident, shedding light on how a single software update could disrupt operations worldwide. Understanding the intricacies of this event is crucial for cybersecurity, information governance, and eDiscovery professionals as it underscores the vulnerabilities in our interconnected digital infrastructure and the importance of rigorous update testing and swift crisis management.
Content Assessment: Global IT Outage: CrowdStrike Update Causes Worldwide Disruptions
Information - 92%
Insight - 91%
Relevance - 93%
Objectivity - 92%
Authority - 90%
92%
Excellent
A short percentage-based assessment of the qualitative benefit expressed as a percentage of positive reception of the recent article by ComplexDiscovery OÜ titled, "Global IT Outage: CrowdStrike Update Causes Worldwide Disruptions."
Industry News – Cybersecurity Beat
Global IT Outage: CrowdStrike Update Causes Worldwide Disruptions
ComplexDiscovery Staff
An issue with an update released by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike caused a ripple effect across global IT systems on Friday, impacting industries such as banking and airlines with massive disruptions. Banks and healthcare providers experienced significant interruptions, and television broadcasters ceased transmission as companies around the globe dealt with the disruption. Air travel was also severely impacted, with planes grounded and services delayed across the globe. At the heart of the issue was Texas-based cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike. According to CrowdStrike, the problem was caused by an update to its Falcon software, which resulted in a widespread crash of systems running Microsoft’s Windows operating system. The incident triggered the notorious “blue screen of death,” leaving users with frozen screens and unresponsive computers.
The update, which was supposed to enhance security, led to unforeseen consequences as machines operating on Microsoft’s Windows system experienced crashes due to a malfunction in the update’s interaction with Windows. “We have been made aware of an issue impacting Virtual Machines running Windows Client and Windows Server, running the CrowdStrike Falcon agent, which may encounter a bug check (BSOD [blue screen of death]) and get stuck in a restarting state,” Microsoft said in an update. The issues began around 19:00 UTC on Friday, according to Microsoft, which confirmed that CrowdStrike had pulled the problematic update.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz emphasized that the disruption was not due to a cyberattack. “Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected,” Kurtz stated. Despite this assurance, the fallout from the outage was dramatic. The glitch affected operations in various sectors internationally, including Spanish airports, U.S. airlines, Australian media, and banks. Governments in Australia, New Zealand, and several U.S. states also faced issues, while major airlines such as American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines grounded flights due to communication problems.
“The damage to business processes at the global level is dramatic. The glitch is due to a software update of CrowdStrike’s EDR product,” said Omer Grossman, Chief Information Officer at identity security firm CyberArk. EDR, or Endpoint Detection and Response, is a cybersecurity product designed to monitor and respond to threats on clients’ devices. Grossman explained that the widespread crash hindered remote updates, necessitating a manual resolution process that could take days to complete.
Industries worldwide felt the impact. The London Stock Exchange, banks, and even McDonald’s stores reported issues. Downdetector, a service that tracks user-reported outages, recorded growing issues at firms like Starbucks, Ticketmaster, BetMGM, and UPS. Health centers, including Boston’s Mass General Brigham, experienced disruptions, and Sky News, a major television news channel in Britain, went off the air on Friday.
The travel sector was particularly hard-hit, with FlightAware reporting that the outages impacted more than 30,000 flights. Major airports, such as John F. Kennedy International in the U.S. and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands, experienced notable disruptions, affecting airlines like United Airlines and American Airlines.
As per a Reuters report, CrowdStrike has over 20,000 subscription customers globally. “The damage to business processes at the global level is dramatic,” emphasized Grossman. The cascading outage extended to industries worldwide, affecting companies as diverse as banks, healthcare systems, and even U.K. public broadcaster Sky News. The outage did not spare Australian Senator Ralph Babet, who speculated a link between the outage and former U.S. President Donald Trump’s activities, though such claims were widely discredited.
CrowdStrike’s Falcon software, central to the disruption, is used by more than half of Fortune 500 companies. Despite the quick identification and rollback of the faulty update, the fix necessitated time-consuming manual interventions. While Kurtz apologized for the disruptions caused, he assured that CrowdStrike’s team is “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.” Microsoft also confirmed that their cloud services had been restored after an unrelated outage affecting its Azure services and Microsoft 365 suite in the central U.S. region.
Amidst the outage, companies have been forced to adopt workarounds to continue operations, and it may take days for systems to return fully to normal. Security consultant Troy Hunt predicted, “this will be the largest IT outage in history,” highlighting the widespread and severe nature of the disruptions.
News Sources
- What is CrowdStrike (CRWD), and how did it cause global IT outages?
- Explainer: What caused the global cyber outage?
- CrowdStrike CEO says global tech outage ‘not a security or cyber incident’
- CrowdStrike’s Role In the Microsoft IT Outage, Explained
- CrowdStrike Security Software Update Causes Global Outages
Assisted by GAI and LLM Technologies
Additional Reading
- AT&T Faces Major Cybersecurity Breach Affecting Over 100 Million Customers
- Prudential Financial’s Data Breach Impact Soars to Over 2.5 Million Customers
Source: ComplexDiscovery OÜ