It is due to an upgrade that was released by the security giant CrowdStrike.
Multiple businesses all over the world, including airlines, broadcasters, and others, have been hit by a widespread computer system failure known as a blue screen of death (BSOD) in Microsoft Windows. The issue was brought about by a faulty update that was distributed by the security giant CrowdStrike. This update led personal computers and servers to enter an unrecoverable boot loop. Despite the fact that the update has been reversed, a significant number of machines are still impacted.
Under the heading “We have widespread reports of BSODs on windows hosts, occurring on multiple sensor versions,” CrowdStrike said in a post that was pinned on Reddit. “[We have] identified a content deployment related to this issue and reverted those changes.” The company went on to explain a remedy, which included booting Windows into Safe Mode and removing a particular driver from the system.
Delta, Frontier, and other airlines were forced to ground flights as a result of the incident, which also had an effect on the London Stock Exchange and the United Kingdom’s broadcaster Sky. Several dozen people commented on a thread on Reddit, stating that their businesses were effectively offline as a result of the problematic situation.
“Even if [CrowdStrike] fixed the issue causing the BSOD, I’m thinking how are we going to restore the thousands of devices that are not booting up,” according to one individual. “Let me explain to someone who is not tech savvy and is working from home how to boot their machine into safe mode,” a another individual wrote.
Users of Reddit, including a significant number of IT managers from countries such as Australia, Malaysia, Japan, India, and the Czech Republic, among others, have stated that they are working to resolve the issue. “at this place, the Philippines, and more precisely at the place where I work, it is as if Thanos cracked his fingers. Due to a BSOD loop, fifty percent of the entire corporation is currently offline. We began at two o’clock, and it is still going on. Someone remarked, “What a Friday!”
CrowdStrike is a security company that operates outside of the United States and offers real-time protection to organizations against various security threats. Falcon is one of the firm’s most important products, and the company describes it as “providing real-time indicators of attack, hyper-accurate detection, and automated protection” against potential dangers. A representative from CrowdStrike stated that it was most likely an issue with Falcon that was the source of the incident.
Microsoft looks to have also experienced a separate outage with its Azure services and the Microsoft 365 app suite, which is adding to the misery that has already been experienced. “Users may be unable to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services,” it stated in its announcement. Although it is unclear which of the outages are due to this rather than the CrowdStrike issue, it is possible that some of them are.
At 6:12 a.m. Eastern Time on July 19, 2024: Not a “security incident or cyberattack,” according to CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz, who has acknowledged the issue on X and stated that it was caused by a fault in a content update for Windows hosts, the issue was not caused by a cyberattack. He made the announcement that “the issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.” Whether or if the patch will be applicable to computers that are now stuck in a boot loop is not mentioned anywhere in the text.
He went on to say that hosts running Mac and Linux are not affected. A statement that is identical to this one has been published on the blog of CrowdStrike. This is the first time that the corporation has issued an apology over the incident.