A defective update released by CrowdStrike Falcon is causing Windows systems to display the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) screen. The incident is causing widespread global disruptions, impacting critical infrastructure such as banks, airports and hospitals.
The company stated that they have identified the content deployment related to this issue and reverted those changes.
The bad release, containing an invalid Windows driver, was published just after midnight Eastern time on July 19, 2024, and rolled back an hour and a half later, at 1:27 AM Eastern, CrowdStrike said. But by then millions of computers had already automatically downloaded the faulty update. When Windows devices using CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity tools tried to access the flawed file, it caused an “out-of-bounds memory read” that “could not be gracefully handled, resulting in a Windows operating system crash,” CrowdStrike said. The issue affected only Windows devices, not Mac or Linux machines, and only those that were switched on and able to receive updates during those early morning hours.
IT giants Google and Microsoft were also impacted by the incident: Virtual machines using the CrowdStrike agent experienced serious problems.
What’s been described as the largest IT outage in history will cost Fortune 500 companies alone more than $5 billion in direct losses, according to one insurer’s analysis.
CrowdStrike Falcon detects and blocks hacking threats. The company confirmed that the incident was not a result of a cyber attack.
Read more about it here.