The worldwide computer outage impacting airports, banks, and other businesses on Friday appears to be partly due to a software update from major US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, experts informed.
CrowdStrike informed clients early Friday that the disruptions were caused by “a defect found in a single content update of its software on Microsoft Windows operating systems," according to a post on X by CEO George Kurtz.
The company’s engineers took steps to address the problem, according to an advisory viewed by CNN, which advised customers to reboot their computers and take other actions if they were still experiencing technical issues. The issue is specific to Falcon, one of CrowdStrike’s main software products, and does not affect Mac or Linux operating systems. Falcon is designed to protect files saved in the cloud.
CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software — used by numerous Fortune 500 companies, including major global banks, healthcare, and energy companies — detects and blocks hacking threats. Like other cybersecurity products, the software requires deep-level access to a computer’s operating system to scan for threats. In this instance, computers running Microsoft Windows appear to be crashing due to a faulty software code update issued by CrowdStrike interacting with the Windows system.
The company stated the outage was not caused by a security incident or a cyberattack. Kurtz, in his post, mentioned that the issue was identified and isolated, and engineers deployed an update to fix the problem.
The large cybersecurity firm conducts business globally through software sales and investigations of major hacks.
The company also assists in cybersecurity investigations for the US government. For example, CrowdStrike has tracked North Korean hackers for over a decade. They were also tasked with tracking the groups responsible for the 2014 hack on Sony Pictures.
CrowdStrike is perhaps best known for investigating the Russian hack of Democratic National Committee computers during the 2016 US election. The company has been at the center of false conspiracy theories since 2016, especially after a White House transcript revealed former President Donald Trump mentioned CrowdStrike in his July 2016 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which led to his first impeachment.
CrowdStrike was the first to publicly raise the alarm about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, and its assessment was later confirmed by US intelligence agencies.
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