Microsoft outage explained: How CrowdStrike is triggering the infamous Windows' 'Blue Screen Of Death'

In a significant IT breakdown, Microsoft experienced a widespread outage that disrupted multiple services worldwide, causing users to encounter the infamous 'Blue Screen of Death' (BSOD). This issue has been traced back to a problem with CrowdStrike's Falcon Sensor software, which resulted in considerable disruptions and led to humorous online reactions, as users joked about an early start to the weekend.

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CrowdStrike and Falcon Sensor: an overview

CrowdStrike is a renowned cybersecurity company known for its Falcon Sensor software, which is designed to protect systems from cyberattacks. On Thursday, CrowdStrike alerted users to a bug in the Falcon Sensor that was causing Windows systems to crash with BSOD errors. Despite efforts to roll back the problematic update, many systems remain affected.

What is 'Blue Screen of Death'?

The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) is a critical error screen on Windows PCs that halts all operations and displays an error message. This occurs when the system encounters a severe issue, often leading to an unexpected restart and potential data loss.

The global impact of the outage

The outage has had a far-reaching impact, affecting various sectors worldwide, including airports, airlines, financial trading, and media services.

Airports and airlines across India, Japan, Australia, the UK, and the US reported delays and flight cancellations. In India, booking and check-in services for airlines such as IndiGo, Akasa Airlines, and SpiceJet were disrupted. SpiceJet resorted to manual check-in and boarding processes due to "technical challenges" with its service provider. Similarly, Akasa Airlines suspended online services, citing "infrastructure issues with the service provider."

Banks
Media
Airports

You name it, anyone using @CrowdStrike is feeling the pain this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/05UQLUi6jU

¡ª RMXD (@RMXD) July 19, 2024

In the US, airlines including American Airlines, Delta, and United Airlines faced significant disruptions, with American Airlines stating that no flights were being allowed to take off. Moreover, the '911' emergency services were disrupted in several US provinces.

In India, trading activities were impacted, with brokerages such as Nuvama Wealth Management, Edelweiss Mutual Fund, Motilal Oswal, IIFL Securities, 5Paisa Capital, and Angel Broking experiencing technical glitches.

According to Reuters, several major oil and gas trading desks in London and Singapore struggled to execute trades due to the cyber outage. Media services were also hit, with Sky News in the UK going off the air as a result of the outage.

Responses from CrowdStrike and Microsoft

CrowdStrike has assured users that their engineers are actively working to resolve the issue. According to CNBC, CrowdStrike stated there is no need for users to open additional support tickets and advised those experiencing problems to contact their system administrators. George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, provided an update on Twitter:

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. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We¡­

¡ª George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024

Also Read: Here's all you need to know about Microsoft Windows's Blue Screen of Death causing a global IT outage

"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. 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 organizations ensure they¡¯re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."

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Microsoft confirmed that the Azure outage was resolved early Friday but emphasized the risks associated with heavy reliance on cloud services. On its support site, Microsoft stated, "We're investigating an issue affecting access to multiple Microsoft 365 services. We're working to identify the full impact and will provide more information shortly."

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