Microsoft global outage linked to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike

• Published On: 19 July 2024 at 20:44

CrowdStrike's upgrade appears to have caused a partial global computer outage on Friday, affecting airports, banks, and other organisations.

CrowdStrike stated that it is in the process of rolling back the update that triggered the problem, and later announced that a patch for the defect had been issued.

"CrowdStrike is currently working with customers affected by a problem discovered in a single content update for Windows hosts. Macintosh and Linux hosts are not affected.

"This is not a security breach or cyberattack. "The problem has been identified, isolated, and fixed," CEO George Kurtz said in a statement on X.

Microsoft began receiving reports of difficulties in the early hours of July 19. Microsoft 365 for Consumers is currently operational, according to its Service Health page. However, according to its Service Health Status for its cloud services for business, enterprise apps continue to be disrupted.

In a statement, a Microsoft spokeswoman stated, "We're aware of a problem affecting Windows devices caused by a third-party software platform upgrade. We expect a resolution soon," according to TechCrunch.

A Microsoft spokesman stated that the prior Microsoft 365 service disruption overnight on July 18-19 was unconnected to the global outage caused by the CrowdStrike update.

According to a Microsoft spokesman, the global outage triggered by the CrowdStrike update was unrelated to the earlier Microsoft 365 service disruption that occurred overnight on July 18-19.

There will be many questions to ask and answers concerning resilience, particularly in cloud services, such as how a single update can put so much to a standstill all around the world.

"In our opinion, cybersecurity technologies must meet a higher standard of dependability and security in client deployments than other technology products since they are mission important and actively targeted by attackers.

"In some ways, we believe this will reinforce the industry's barrier to entry and the need for best-in-class update, outage, and customer service protocols, ultimately favouring companies with scale," Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a research note on Friday.

The multinational cybersecurity company distributes and deploys cybersecurity software around the world, as well as conducting extensive hacking investigations.

CrowdStrike's cybersecurity software is used by many Fortune 500 corporations, including major global banking, healthcare, and energy companies, to detect and prevent hacking attempts. The software, like other cybersecurity solutions, requires significant access to a computer's operating system in order to detect such threats. The reason for the crashes on Microsoft Windows computers in this case appears to be a problem with how a CrowdStrike software code update interacts with the Windows system.

Additionally, the business assists the US government in conducting cybersecurity investigations. For example, CrowdStrike claims to have been tracking North Korean hackers for more than a decade. It was also charged with tracking down the hacker organisations responsible for Sony Pictures' 2014 hack.

CrowdStrike is well known for its investigation of Russia's 2016 presidential election hacking attempt on the Democratic National Committee's servers. Since 2016, spurious conspiracy theories have swirled around it, most notably after a White House transcript surfaced claiming former President Donald Trump mentioned Crowdstrike during his July 2016 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which resulted in his first impeachment.
CrowdStrike was the first to publicly raise concerns about Russia's intervention in the 2016 election, and its findings were eventually confirmed by US intelligence agencies.

However, the company stated that clients should use the support page for the most up-to-date information and connect with their CrowdStrike agents through proper channels.

"Our team is fully mobilised to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers," a spokesperson said.