The internet reacts to the CrowdStrike IT disaster that crashed computers worldwide

Daniel Sims

Daniel Sims

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Facepalm: Businesses worldwide suffered outages on Friday due to an issue with an update from CrowdStrike's widely-used security software. Naturally, customers and employees of the affected companies swiftly poked fun at the situation. Fortunately, CrowdStrike has provided an update on how to resolve the problem.

CrowdStrike has apologized for the debacle that sparked worldwide panic on Friday, assuring customers it has resolved the issue. Those still affected should refer to the company's support site for detailed instructions.

The problem stems from a faulty file in a recent Falcon Sensor security system update that could cause a Blue Screen of Death on Windows systems. As a result, transportation systems, broadcasters, hospitals, emergency services, and other organizations across the globe experienced massive disruption.

In an update, the company confirmed that Windows hosts that went online after around 1:30 am EDT should be unaffected. Hosts running on the older Windows 7 and 2008 R2 operating systems are also okay. Somewhat hilariously, Southwest Airlines dodged the outage by running its systems on Windows 95. Those who aren't experiencing any issues don't need to take action.

The questionable channel file is called "C-00000291*.sys" with a 0527 UTC timestamp. Users having trouble booting Windows after CrowdStrike reverted the update can find it under %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike after booting in safe mode or Windows Recovery mode. The reverted version of the file has the same name but a 0409 UTC timestamp. CrowdStrike also has detailed instructions for fixing affected virtual and cloud systems.

Meanwhile, social media was not lacking from first-hand accounts, citizen reporting, and memes galore.

Weather tracker Colin McCarthy provided a 12-hour time-lapse of dissipating air traffic from American Airlines, Delta, and United as flights across the US were grounded due to the disruption.

One airline customer took a photo of their first-ever handwritten boarding pass.

Another user on X posted an advertisement from CrowdStrike's website warning about how digital security threats could quickly sink a business, a statement that seems wildly inappropriate now. Some might consider the incident a sign of how security software can sometimes unnecessarily burden systems.

A prevalent theme among onlookers is how Mac and Linux users were unaffected.

One Reddit user took the opportunity to poke fun at a racecar sponsored by CrowdStrike.

George, switch the car to Safemode
byu/platinumpt informuladank

On a more serious note, the event could renew the focus on consolidation in the cybersecurity industry, as it shows the dangers of putting too many eggs into one basket. A new report from the Financial Times highlights how a handful of companies, including CrowdStrike, control at least half the market.

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The internet reacts to the CrowdStrike IT disaster that crashed computers worldwide

 
CrowdStrike truly live up to its name by striking the crowd. But the incident also will strike themselves now that it got people thinking of the risk of depending on their software.
 
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Microsoft continues to flush itself down the toilet. Windows is such a convoluted shambles with so much technical debt that Microsoft is incapable of addressing and Windows update is so out of control now that this was bound to happen.
 
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I was able to log in this morning only because I shut my laptop down last night instead of just logging off. Many on my team are on VMs and they could not work until IT rebooted those servers.
 
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OortCloud said:
Microsoft continues to flush itself down the toilet. Windows is such a convoluted shambles with so much technical debt that Microsoft is incapable of addressing and Windows update is so out of control now that this was bound to happen.
Click to expand...
Nothing to do with MS other than it was there OS that is used by a ton of company's. A different company's update caused the problem.
It's ok to say you can't read. Hooked on Phonics can still work for you.
 
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OortCloud said:
Microsoft continues to flush itself down the toilet. Windows is such a convoluted shambles with so much technical debt that Microsoft is incapable of addressing and Windows update is so out of control now that this was bound to happen.
Click to expand...
Two things:

1) Microsoft wasn't responsible for this issue
2) Windows Server doesn't automatically install updates or self re-boot unless you tell it to (or change the default security policy surrounding update behaviour).

If you read the article or had ever used Windows Server, you'd know.
 
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Someone could do an article on how many weak links there are in the WWW
If Amazons servers go down
If SWIFT goes down etc

They provided a solution - yeah a roll back
MS I think are starting to have solutions for windows continuously boots, think it must count the cycles and then go to a safe mode/roolback ?- Not happened to me. Only if some driver error conflict or some such t and a full depower and repower will get it to boot

You would think for such mission critical software, they would have a really stringent protocol before rolling it out . No some friday , ah just post it , lets get to the pub for happytime
 
LOL, read on the news that Southwest Airlines was one of the only U.S. domestic airlines flying without any issues when this started...the reason?
They still use Windows 3.1 server & Windows 95.
 
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Until the Govt. makes these security providers 100% responsible for testing and accuracy by making them 100% responsible for every dollar lost because of their negligence, it will continue again and again ....
 
Uncle Al said:
Until the Govt. makes these security providers 100% responsible for testing and accuracy by making them 100% responsible for every dollar lost because of their negligence, it will continue again and again ....
Click to expand...
Oh don't you worry, there are going to be so many lawsuits against CS, that I don't see that company being around in a year. Top all those lawsuits with companies leaving them in groves, and yeah, well, that company gonna be goners. Their CEO wasn't crying on the news for no reason today, he knows his life (financially speaking) is pretty much over.
 
texasrattler said:
Nothing to do with MS other than it was there OS that is used by a ton of company's. A different company's update caused the problem.
It's ok to say you can't read. Hooked on Phonics can still work for you.
Click to expand...
The usual smart-arsed response from the moronosphere....

Here's a quote from somebody at the heart of this that actually knows what they are talking about.

“Yes, CrowdStrike pushed a kernel-level update that causes widespread blue screens,” he said. “Yes, that should have been caught during quality assurance (QA) and I'm sure we will get an after-action report that details why release procedures didn't catch it. But software bugs happen. They are unavoidable - even for top-tier shops like CrowdStrike. This is a high-impact incident not because there was a blue screen, but because it causes repeated blue screens on reboot and [appears as of right now] to require manual, command-line intervention on each box to remediate (and even harder if BitLocker is enabled). That is the result of poor resiliency in the Microsoft Windows operating system. Any software causing repeated failures on boot should not be automatically reloaded. We've got to stop crucifying CrowdStrike for one bug, when it is the OS's behavior that is causing the repeated, systemic failures.”
 
themastergoose said:
Two things:

1) Microsoft wasn't responsible for this issue
2) Windows Server doesn't automatically install updates or self re-boot unless you tell it to (or change the default security policy surrounding update behaviour).

If you read the article or had ever used Windows Server, you'd know.
Click to expand...
See previous comment...
 
I liked the "happy international bluescreen day" one. I wonder if this day will become infamous enough to establish an international bluescreen day.
 
How much of a coincidence is it that this happens only a few weeks after MS got hacked… I smell a conspiracy theory / cover up!
 
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