A significant IT outage on Friday, caused by an update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, affected businesses worldwide. CrowdStrike informed NBC that it is in the process of rolling back the problematic update and later announced that a fix had been implemented.
CrowdStrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, posted on X, stating, “CrowdStrike is diligently collaborating with customers affected by a defect discovered in a single content update for Windows hosts.” Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted.” He emphasized that this was not a security incident or cyberattack and assured that the issue had been identified, isolated, and resolved.
Kurtz advised affected customers to check the support portal for the latest updates and to coordinate with their CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. He reassured that the team is fully mobilized to ensure customer security and stability.
The outage resulted in widespread technical issues, with numerous Microsoft users encountering the “blue screen of death.” Various sectors, including airlines, banks, and telecom firms, were significantly impacted.
American Airlines, self-described as the world’s largest airline, reported technology issues affecting multiple carriers. The Dutch branch of Air France-KLM had to suspend most operations due to the problem. Spain’s airport authority, AENA, warned travelers of delays caused by a computer system incident, while U.K. airline Ryanair advised passengers to arrive three hours early due to disruptions from a third-party IT outage.
Banks and financial institutions globally reported issues as well. The London Stock Exchange experienced problems with its data and news platform. German finance giant Allianz faced a major outage, impacting employee access to computers, specifically due to issues with Windows login, attributed to CrowdStrike.
Visa reported no direct impact on payment processing but acknowledged reports of payment difficulties, working with financial institution clients to understand any effects on cardholders and merchants. NBC Universal also faced disruptions due to the CrowdStrike outage.
CyberArk CIO, Omer Grossman, predicted significant damage from this outage, linking it to a software update of CrowdStrike’s EDR product, which protects endpoints but runs with high privileges. This malfunction, as seen in the current incident, caused operating systems to crash.
Grossman noted the challenge in restoring normalcy, explaining that endpoints affected by the Blue Screen of Death cannot be updated remotely and require manual resolution, a process expected to take days.
