Last week, CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm, released a faulty update that created a global outage, causing blue screen issues on Windows computers, halting flight operations in most parts of the world and virtually bringing most things to a standstill. And now, the company has detailed what went wrong in a post, blaming a bug in the test software that took down millions of computers worldwide. Here’s everything you need to know.
CrowdStrike details the issue behind Microsoft Windows computer outrage
Multiple companies worldwide, from airports to food giants like McDonald’s, use CrowdStrike’s Falcon software to help protect millions of Windows computers against malware and security breaches. In the post, CrowdStrike says a test software caused the issue due to improper validation of the content update distributed to millions of devices.
The company says it released a content configuration update “to gather telemetry on possible novel threat techniques.” Although the company frequently releases these updates, this specific configuration upgrade crashed Windows computers across the globe.
CrowdStrike also tried to solve this global disaster by offering certain individuals a $10 Uber Eats gift card as a token of apology. The gift card email says, “To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us.”
A friend received it and then said they revoked it
— Mark Le Dain (@mark_ledain) July 24, 2024
Which sounds about right haha
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However, some recipients said they couldn’t use the gift cards. In a statement to SlashGear, a CrowdStrike representative clarified the situation by saying that the gift cards were intended as a means of support for its “teammates and partners who have been helping customers through this situation,” not as an apology to the company’s clients or consumers. Moreover, the company also explained why certain receivers couldn’t use the gift cards: “Uber flagged it as fraud because of high usage rates.”
Anyway, CrowdStrike promises to handle errors better, conduct more extensive testing of its content updates, and carry out a staggered deployment to avoid such a disaster.
