Cause of Microsoft global outage discovered as CrowdStrike chief speaks out
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has uncovered the cause of a major global IT outage that has plunged the world into chaos.
The tech giant, which has been named in relation to an outage impacting Microsoft users around the world, says it has identified the issue as a defect in a single content update.
CrowdStrike say they have isolated the bug and deployed a fix. They have confirmed the outage was not caused by a cyberattack.
A blue error screen on a register is seen at a departmental store affected by a cyber outage in Brisbane, Australia, July 19, 2024 (Picture: REUTERS)
In the UK, train passengers have been warned of travel chaos during rush hour with several operators affected by ‘widespread IT issues’.
One of the country’s major TV channels, Sky News, was also off air on Friday.
Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz released this statement: ‘Crowdstrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.
‘Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.
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‘The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.
‘We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.
‘We further recommend organisations ensure they’re communicating with Crowdstrike representatives through official channels.
‘Our team is fully mobilised to ensure the security and stability of Crowdstrike customers.‘
CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity service designed to stop internet hacks. It is used by many of the world’s biggest companies.
Experts are having their say on the unprecedented outage, with Dr Paul Parry, Associate Head, School of Computing and Digital Technologies at Sheffield Hallam University, telling Metro.co.uk there is both good news and bad news.
He said: ‘First investigations indicate, thankfully, that this is not a malicious attack,
but the result of an error in a software patch by an anti-virus supplier.
‘The good news is that the virus company has issued a solution, but the vast number of computers affected – which could be millions – make this is extremely large job. You can imagine armies of IT personnel frantically engaged in applying the fix, but it will take time.’
Others say the disruption is likely to be resolved quickly, now that the cause has been found.
James Davenport, Hebron & Medlock Professor of Information Technology at Bath University, says we are unlikely to see chaos stretch into the weekend.
‘I’d be surprised if it’s a couple days. I hope it can be cleared out within 24 hours, perhaps later today or by tomorrow morning.’
Prof Davenport advises anyone affected by computer issues to avoid rebooting. Instead he says it’s best to wait for the issue to flush through the system itself.
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