July 2024 | Nextworks
The major Microsoft IT outage that affected flights, TV stations, and online hospital systems was linked to a third party: CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity technology firm. Here’s a breakdown of what transpired:
Companies in Australia running Microsoft Windows reported “blue screens of death,” which occur when Windows shuts down unexpectedly. These disruptions then spread rapidly, impacting companies and communities around the world.
The issue stemmed from a faulty update deployed by CrowdStrike to computers running Windows. (Macs are not impacted.)
Specifically, the problem was linked to CrowdStrike’s product called Falcon.
Falcon is widely used by Fortune 500 companies, including banks, airlines, energy, healthcare, and food companies.
According to expert sources, this was a “perfect storm” of issues.
CrowdStrike’s code had bugs, and the update acted as a ticking time bomb.
Proper steps (rigorous testing, diverse machine testing, gradual rollout) were not followed.
This widespread impact highlights the consolidation in the cybersecurity field. When this many organizations depend on the same cybersecurity platform we can see outages of this scale.
CrowdStrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, apologized for the disruption caused to customers and others affected.
The company is actively resolving the issue.
Microsoft is also taking mitigation action to address the lingering impact of the outage.
Fortunately, Nextworks does not deploy CrowdStrike. We use other cybersecurity products instead. We have not seen any of our clients directly impacted. Of course, it's likely that you have been indirectly affected as so many organizations use Falcon.
Contact Nextworks today for a no cost Cybersecurity Assessment.
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