A massive outage caused by a CrowdStrike update has impacted users across the world. On the morning of Friday, July 19th, many Windows machines started seeing the dreaded “blue screen of death” (BSOD), indicating their system was down. Here’s what you need to know about the CrowdStrike outage, and what to do if your business is affected.
What happened?
It’s important to note that this is not considered a security event at this time. Reports indicate that the outage was caused by a defective update, not malicious activity. More specifically, the update was deployed by CrowdStrike to its “Falcon Sensor” service. Despite proactive testing, sometimes software updates have unforeseen consequences to systems. Defects are a risk whenever deploying anything new, especially at a large scale. Unfortunately, no vendor is immune from unintentional issues caused by updates.
CrowdStrike is a leading provider of cybersecurity tools like Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR).
Many large, enterprise level organizations use CrowdStrike, or work with vendors that do. This includes major airlines, industry giants like Microsoft, and even global coffee chains. For most organizations, the impact from this outage is caused by a vendor using CrowdStrike.
Are ADNET services impacted?
ADNET does not leverage CrowdStrike for any of its service offerings. Our managed IT services and managed security services are not currently impacted by this outage. However, clients who have installed CrowdStrike on their own are likely impacted.
What can you do if your business is affected?
There is a workaround, which involves booting the system in safe mode and deleting the defective files. However, this is an extremely manual, time-consuming process. If this needs to be performed on a mass scale, it could still be hours before service is restored.
If you need help or suspect this outage is impacting you, reach out to our Support Team or your Engagement Manager to discuss how ADNET can help.
