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On Friday, July 19th, millions of Windows users were locked out of their devices after a faulty CrowdStrike update caused a massive worldwide outage. This is a stark reminder of the potential consequences of software updates and the importance of thorough testing and quality assurance.
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A faulty code in the update files for the latest version of CrowdStrike’s Falcon sensor software was intended to make systems more secure. However, the configuration update triggered a logic error resulting in a system crash and blue screen (BSOD) on impacted systems, leading to the most widespread tech outages in recent years.
Reuters reports that this is potentially due to the code not being properly vetted or sandboxed before the launch.
The outage caused chaos, with many businesses being forced to close or operate in a limited capacity until the bug was fixed.
Microsoft revealed that approximately 8.5 million devices were impacted globally. Despite only accounting for 1% of Windows devices, there were ripple effects across multiple crucial industries, particularly airlines, hospitals, banks, and telecommunication companies.
Hospitals across the US, Canada and UK were forced to cancel elective procedures, with Britain’s National Health Service seeing problems at most GP offices across England due to the impact on their appointment and patient record system.
Air travelers faced the brunt of the chaos, with more than 42,00 flights delayed and a further 4,700 canceled internationally. There were also severe delays at the international borders between the US and Mexico as well as the Canadian border.
Over the weekend, Microsoft deployed hundreds of engineers to support its customers to restore services. CrowdStrike also posted instructions on how to remediate the error, however, this is a manual process which will take time to implement across all affected devices.
CrowdStrike is continuing to work to get all affected devices back online, and in an X post, stated that a significant number were online and operational.
Cyber resilience is more important than ever, but this outage reminds us of how reliant the economy is on technology and how networks have become complex and intertwined, making it easier for one small error to have such broad-reaching consequences. The sheer extent of the crash exposed the vulnerabilities in essential security software, and the full financial damage cannot yet be estimated.
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