An IT failure caused by a software update from CrowdStrike wreaked havoc worldwide on Friday, leading to cancellations of flights, hospital appointments, payroll system failures, and disruptions to TV channels and other services. Experts warned that the recovery process could take weeks, as affected PCs may need to be fixed manually. The UK government and industries were coordinating their responses through the Cobra committee to address the fallout from the outage.
CrowdStrike confirmed that the IT failure was not due to a cyber-attack but a software update issue. Microsoft acknowledged the problem and anticipated a resolution. The stock price of CrowdStrike fell, while various industries reported issues, including transportation, banking, gaming, and media outlets. The scale of the outage was described as unprecedented by cybersecurity experts.
Companies like Ryanair, Heathrow, American Airlines, and Delta were among those affected, with disruptions to global travel and flight cancelations. GP practices in the UK were unable to access patient records, and hospitals in countries like Israel and Germany were affected. The University of Surrey suggested that the outage was caused by CrowdStrike Falcon, a monitoring software, affecting large organizations with significant numbers of PCs.
Experts predicted a lengthy recovery process, with some organizations facing weeks of downtime due to the need for manual fixes. Despite the widespread impacts, the UK government services were reportedly unaffected, and a solution had been identified to resolve the issue. CrowdStrike’s president confirmed that the incident was caused by a “defect” in a content update for Windows hosts and was not a security incident or cyber-attack.
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