Microsoft’s problems are already shaping up to be one of the biggest IT disruptions in history, affecting countless businesses and individuals around the world. This is another example of how a minor technical change can cause widespread damage.
Companies are faced with problems affecting PCs, servers and other IT equipment running Microsoft Windows. Affected PC users see a “blue screen of death”, indicating that Windows has failed to load.
Microsoft blamed a faulty update from CrowdStrike, a security software vendor.
In a post on X, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said the cause of the problems was a “flaw found in a single Windows content update.” PCs and servers running Apple’s MacOS and the open-source Linux operating system, which is widely used in Internet infrastructure, were “not affected,” he said.
CrowdStrike is one of the largest software providers
“This is not a security incident or a cyber attack,” Kurtz said. “The problem was identified, isolated and a solution was implemented.”
CrowdStrike is one of the largest providers of endpoint security software that protects connections between computer networks and remote devices – from laptops, phones and servers to retail payment terminals and ATMs – that are connected to corporate networks . Any of these devices running Windows could be affected by the bug.
Customers of Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, which runs mostly on Windows, also reported problems.
“Global IT disruption is unprecedented”
The IT failure affected airlines, banks and broadcasters from the US and Europe to Australia, Japan and India.
“This morning’s global IT outage is unprecedented in the range and scale of systems affected,” said Harjinder Lallie, cyber security expert at Warwick University.
CrowdStrike is a cyber security company founded in 2011 and headquartered in Austin, Texas. Its Falcon software is designed to stop cyberattacks and includes a suite of products that run on individual devices and are delivered through the cloud.
While CrowdStrike said that “a fix has been implemented,” it’s unclear how long it may take to distribute it to the very large number of affected customers and all of their employees’ devices.
IT outages could last for hours or even days
British officials say IT outages that have affected businesses and services around the world could take hours or even days to fix, reports France 24.
More pessimistic scenario. The problems could “take days to resolve – if not weeks,” said Vasileios Karagiannopoulos, a cybersecurity researcher at the University of Portsmouth.
Kevin Beaumont, a cybersecurity researcher, said in social media posts that CrowdStrike customers are facing an “incredibly painful” process to fix the problem.
Source: www.descopera.ro
