Explained: What Is CrowdStrike And How An Update by Them Led To A Massive Global IT Outage

In our hyper - connected world where technology has become a part and parcel of our life and is the backbone of virtually every industry whether be it from the aviation sector to the healthcare sector, or the financial service to everyday communication, we rely on intricate digital networks. But the concerns to all this is, "What happens when a crucial piece of digital puzzle fails?

On Friday, July 19, the world witnessed one of the largest IT failures in the history, stemming from a seemingly routine software update by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike which caused a widespread disruptions such as flights were grounded, health services disrupted, payment systems crashed, and access to Microsoft services was blocked.

What is CrowdStrike?

Founded in 2011, CrowdStrike is an American cybersecurity firm based in Austria, Texas, offering a range of cloud-based security services.

The company was recently in the spotlight after the global IT outage that occurred on July 19, 2024.

The company has raised substantial funding from notable investors, including Google’s venture capital arm and protects 538 out of the Fortune 1000 companies and employs thousands of workers worldwide.

About the incident

The global IT outage began when CrowdStrike rolled out an update to its flagship cybersecurity platform, Falcon, which is cloud-based cybersecurity software designed to protect against cyber threats.

This update, which interacted with Microsoft Windows systems, caused widespread system crashes, and resulted to "blue screen of death" on countless devices.

The ramifications from the update was sudden and severe, and has caused flights delays and grounded, hospitals service interruptions, and businesses halt in payment processing.

Moreover, Microsoft’s Azure cloud services also faced an outage, adding to the confusion and frustration of users worldwide.

CrowdStrike’s Response

CrowdStrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, quickly addressed the situation, and wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."

Later on, he provided an update detailing the issues that had been caused and wrote, "As CrowdStrike continues to work with customers and partners to resolve this incident, our team has written a technical overview of today’s events. We will continue to update our findings as the investigation progresses."

In a similar post, Microsoft Chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella, also clarified the issue and wrote, "Yesterday, CrowdStrike released an update that began impacting IT systems globally. We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online."

Netizens Reaction to this Outage

After the outage, netizens took to social media and reacted with hilarious memes when their screens went blue.