Computers Beginning to Come Back Online After CrowdStrike Caused Crash Friday

Computers around the world are beginning to come back online after a defective update to Windows machines from cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike Friday affected almost 9 million machines.

The outage affected a huge number of systems around the world including airports, banks, retail establishments, and more.

In a blog post late Sunday, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz provided an update on the situation:

I want to sincerely apologize directly to all of you for the outage. All of CrowdStrike understands the gravity and impact of the situation. We quickly identified the issue and deployed a fix, allowing us to focus diligently on restoring customer systems as our highest priority.

The outage was caused by a defect found in a Falcon content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This was not a cyberattack.

We are working closely with impacted customers and partners to ensure that all systems are restored, so you can deliver the services your customers rely on.

Kurtz also said the company was creating a new technique to more quickly fix the machines affected.

Even though the issue wasn’t a cyberattack as first feared, the incident does show how many modern conveniences are controlled with computers.

While 9 million Windows PCs are just a small amount of computers on the planet, it shows how vulnerable priority systems can be from something like a cyberattack that would take much longer to remedy.

About the Author

Brent Dirks is senior editor for Security Today and Campus Security Today magazines.

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