Last Friday, July 19, 2024, a faulty update by cyber security company CrowdStrike, caused a global IT system outage that brought down millions of computers worldwide. Touted as the largest IT meltdown to have ever taken place, the incident has since been resolved and prevented from resulting in much greater damage.
In July 18, CrowdStrike pushed an update on its falcon software, but triggered a meltdown that affected around 8.5 million devices running on Windows operating systems. The faulty update caused Windows Systems to crash and unable to reboot, sending a never ending loop of blue screen displays instead. Restart actions only resulted in more blue screen appearances.
What Exactly is Falcon Software?
A falcon software is also known in the cyber security system as an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) software, which basically functions as an anti-virus mechanism. When installed in a computer, it can collect data from the files and websites opened, as well as from the programs run by the device users. All of which are for the purpose of monitoring and detecting any signs of cyber attacks.
What Exactly was the CrowdStrike Disaster and How Was It Resolved?
In July 19, as part of the dynamic protection mechanism of CrowdStrike’s falcon platform, the cyber security company deployed a content configuration update that would have enabled the Windows sensor to gather readings on potential and new cyber threat techniques. However,
CrowdStrike unknowingly released faulty content configuration updates, which resulted in a Windows system crash.
Unfortunately, computer hosts that were online while running on versions 7 and above of Windows, between 04:09 UTC and 05:27 UTC last July 19 received the faulty updates. Computers and devices that did not go online during those periods as well as Mac and Linux hosts, were not impacted by the global IT meltdown. Devices that were online at the time of the update but running on on older Windows operating systems like Windows 1995, were likewise not affected
The faulty update was a result of a coding error that CrowdStrike was able to immediately identify as a description error. Through manual intervention, the affected systems were able to recover and receive the corrected software update.