Crowdstrike, Microsoft Windows: Full recovery from global IT outage may take time: 10 points

1. Airlines, banks, television channels and financial institutions were thrown into turmoil for hours due to one of the biggest IT failures in recent years, caused by an update to an antivirus program.

2. The flaw was caused by a faulty software update provided to Microsoft Windows users by CrowdStrike, which specializes in cybersecurity for cloud-based businesses.

3. The outages affected businesses or individuals using CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Windows platform. When they applied the update, the incompatible software left computers frozen, known as the “Blue Screen of Death”.

4. In India, several airports have issued handwritten boarding passes to passengers. Many IndiGo flights at Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad airports were canceled and rescheduled. Airlines said today that departures and arrivals have gradually resumed, but delays are expected even now.

5. Media companies were also struggling, with Britain’s Sky News saying the outage had shut down its morning news programs and Australia’s ABC also reporting major difficulties.

6. CrowdStrike said it had released a fix for the issue, and company chief George Kurtz said in a statement that his teams were “fully mobilized” to help affected customers. Kurtz, however, said it could take “some time” before all systems are back up and running.

7. The global nature of the software failure has led some commentators to question dependence on a single vendor for such a variety of services.

8. Security experts said CrowdStrike’s routine update of its widely used cybersecurity software, which caused the global failure of customer systems on Friday, apparently did not undergo adequate quality checks before being deployed.

9. Microsoft said the underlying cause has been fixed and all affected services have been restored.

10. CrowdStrike – which previously reached a market capitalization of around $83 billion – is a leading cybersecurity provider with around 30,000 subscribers worldwide. More than half of Fortune 500 companies and many government bodies, such as the top US cybersecurity agency, use the company’s software.

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