CrowdStrike shares plunge following major IT outage
CrowdStrike, a prominent cybersecurity firm, saw its shares plunge on Friday following a major IT outage that impacted businesses worldwide. The company's stock opened down more than 14% after an update led to the widespread disruption.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz addressed the incident, stating that the issues were caused by "a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts." He emphasized that the issue was not a security incident or cyberattack and that a fix had been deployed.
The outage had far-reaching consequences, affecting various sectors including financial services, healthcare, and air travel. Planes were grounded, services delayed, and airports issued advice to passengers. TV broadcasters went offline, and a multitude of different websites were down.
Microsoft also reported issues affecting its Azure cloud services and Microsoft 365 suite of apps, with its shares down about 1% as of 9:30 a.m. It is not clear whether this outage was linked to CrowdStrike’s update.
Cybersecurity experts noted that the update issue at CrowdStrike was responsible for directly affecting Windows systems around the world, with laptops showing an error screen known as the “blue screen of death."
The global outage underscores the potential for a single point of failure in the cyber supply chain to have significant ripple effects globally. This incident serves as a stark reminder of the importance of robust cybersecurity measures and the potential consequences when they fail.
In response to the outage, CrowdStrike is in the process of rolling back the update globally. The company has assured its customers that the issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed.
U.S. stock exchanges have confirmed that markets are operating normally and are not impacted by the CrowdStrike outage.
As the situation continues to unfold, businesses and individuals worldwide are grappling with the fallout of this major IT disruption. The incident highlights the need for continuous vigilance and investment in cybersecurity to prevent and mitigate such incidents in the future.
Sources:
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