CrowdStrike I.T. Outages

On the 19^th of July 2024, an update was pushed out from CrowdStrike for their Falcon Sensor product. The update that was released had a logic error which then caused systems using Windows to crash and display the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). And typically, Windows systems upon displaying BSOD, would restart and function as intended afterwards, however in the case of the Windows machines impacted by CrowdStrike, the BSOD is looped.

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CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity vendor that develops their own software for businesses to use, which allows them to detect and block threats. The exact root cause analysis will be published by CrowdStrike soon according to the firm. However, from what is currently known to the public, an issue occurred with CrowdStrike’s software that check their updates, and ultimately lead to a faulty update/content file being sent out to numerous Windows systems causing them to crash and display the BSOD.

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As of the 20^th of July, Microsoft stated in a blogpost that they estimate the CrowdStrike update has affected 8.5 million devices using Windows as a result of their faulty update. And whilst this number makes up for less than 1% of all machines that use Windows globally, the mishap has still caused a huge impact to the businesses affected.

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Some of the businesses and organisations that have been impacted by the CrowdStrike outage include some NHS trusts, airports, banks, and even supermarkets.

• 70+ flights in and out of UK airports were cancelled on the 20^th at 16:00 BST.

• Delta has cancelled over 5,500 flights since the outage began on the 19^th.

• VISA, Santander, Lloyds Banks, Nationwide, HSBC, Barclays, and NatWest are amongst some of the banks affected by the CrowdStrike outage, with most having issues with their online and mobile app services.

• Morrisons, Waitrose, Co-op, and JD Wetherspoon were also affected by the outage, which caused issues with digital payments or their apps, meaning customers were only able to pay in cash.

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In Tech Talks Podcast episode published here on Spotify, or alternatively on Apple Podcasts, you can hear our CEO Mark Grindey talk about the CrowdStrike outage.