A recent faulty update from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity provider, caused a significant number of Windows systems to crash, displaying the infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). BSOD system restarts the system without any warning and without any option.
Most of the effected systems were the business systems and the servers using the CrowdStrike security software. CrowdStrike is a security company providing cyber security software and services to the businesses.
It leads to massive IT outage worldwide?
On July 19th, 2024, CrowdStrike rolled out a security update for its Sensor endpoint security software for Windows systems. Unfortunately, this update leads to a massive wave of Windows systems including cloud servers crashing globally due to a logic error within its code. This caused the significant downtime and operational chaos across various industries globally.
Who was affected?
Only the organization using the CrowdStrike’s Security software for Windows and who updated the system between Friday, July 19, 2024 04:09 UTC and Friday, July 19, 2024 05:27 UTC are effected with this. The issue affected various sectors including airlines, banks, TV broadcasters, supermarkets, and railway networks across the UK, Australia, Europe, and the US. For instance, Melbourne Airport faced check-in disruptions, and Sky News in the UK went offline. Users who were using the CrowdStrike’s Endpoint security software are effected directly.
Who was not affected?
Organizations and users who did not install the specific CrowdStrike update or those using different cybersecurity solutions were not impacted by this issue.
It was a targeted update and only affected the CrowdStrike Windows Falcon sensor, a security software component designed to work specifically with CrowdStrike’s security platform.
Mac and Linux users are not effected with this.
Though a normal Windows user is not effected with this, but I heard that many users stuck in Windows update, and face slower windows. I think it could be happened due to the outage of Windows update server impacted with this issue though there is not any confirmation. Otherwise these error could just the coincidence and are due to some other reasons.
If users are facing these issues they can visit the below pages to troubleshoot their issues
How to Fix stuck / failed / unfinished windows 10 updates
Computer running slow? How to fix it and speed it up
How to fix the issue?
CrowdStrike Engineers identified the issue and fixed for the next update but system already effected may require manual efforts.
Microsoft suggested to restart the systems several times to fix the issue automatically on the other hand CrowdStrike suggested the following steps to fix the issue manually.
- Boot into safe mode.
- Navigate to
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike. - Locate and delete the file named
C-00000291*.sys. - Restart the PC to boot normally.
Check out this link for latest about the issue : Falcon update for Windows
In the end
CrowdStrike, a company boasting AI-based cybersecurity, faced this failure. was it an AI fault? where AI pushes updates without testing? Otherwise how could a company push such a faulty update? This is a big question but in tech world it could happen.
As we know that today’s most of the work is happening with the computer and instead of offline most of the systems are shifting to the cloud. So a small outage in the cloud or server could effect the whole world. This is a warning sign for other companies to implement the robust system and be ready with a backup plan.
