Hello everyone, let’s talk about a significant tech hiccup that recently made waves around the globe. The CrowdStrike glitch, which caused massive outages for millions of Microsoft Windows devices, has left industries in turmoil and significantly disrupted air travel worldwide.
So, what exactly happened? Around 8.5 million devices were hit by this outage, CrowdStrike revealed in a statement. While they’ve managed to bring a significant number back online, the aftermath is still unfolding. The company has also warned customers about hackers trying to exploit this situation. Malicious actors have been distributing a fake fix named “crowdstrike-hotfix.zip,” which actually contains malware designed to give them remote control over users’ devices.
This incident took a toll on CrowdStrike’s stock, which plummeted by 13% on Monday afternoon. Over the past two trading days, the stock has lost nearly a quarter of its value. Understandably, this has raised many eyebrows in the financial sector. Despite repeated inquiries, CrowdStrike has remained tight-lipped, offering no additional comments as of Monday.
While businesses and individuals scrambled to secure their tech, travelers faced a nightmare at airports. For the fourth consecutive day, flight cancellations and delays plagued U.S. airports. Airlines, particularly Delta Air Lines, struggled to recover from the disruptions. By 7 a.m. ET on Monday, Delta had already canceled over 600 flights, according to FlightAware. The weekend was one of the worst for travel this year, with more than 7,000 flights canceled from Friday through Sunday, half of which were Delta flights.
Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian, explained that one of their crew tracking tools was affected by the outage, unable to process an unprecedented number of changes due to the system shutdown. Bastian assured customers that their teams were working tirelessly to restore full functionality. He also highlighted that the tech issues hit during the airline’s busiest travel weekend of the summer, making it extremely challenging to rebook passengers, as flights were already over 90% full.
🚨🌎 Listen Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz and tell me he’s not lying?
Talk about plausible deniability – I’ve never seen somebody look so uncomfortable on camera.
Not the first time he’s been in trouble – there is an absolutely huge story waiting to be broken here… pic.twitter.com/iNqfvUc0tf
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) July 22, 2024
The ripple effects weren’t confined to the U.S. Over in the U.K., health services were dealing with disruptions to their appointment and patient record systems. The Wilmslow Health Centre, located near Manchester, predicted ongoing disruptions for several weeks despite some return to computer functionality. Many doctor’s offices and pharmacies reverted to manual methods to handle prescriptions and appointments.
This glitch had a far-reaching impact, crashing Windows devices from the U.S. to China and Australia. The interconnected nature of global digital technology meant that a single update from CrowdStrike could cause chaos for millions. Multiple financial institutions, government entities, and corporations reported issues. In the U.S., hospitals, school districts, and courthouses experienced significant disruptions.
Remember when…
Remember when Trump said Crowdstrike had the DNC server in Ukraine to hide it from the government? pic.twitter.com/9L7bxYGcUs
— 🇺🇸Travis🇺🇸 (@Travis_4_Trump) July 20, 2024
The root of the problem seems to be an update to one of CrowdStrike’s main services, Falcon. Falcon is designed to monitor devices for hacking attempts, viruses, and other threats. CrowdStrike informed customers that the issue stemmed from a software change pushed through Falcon to clients’ computers.
