In what could be described as an actual real-life “Y2K” scenario, countless machines running on Windows and other related Microsoft software products screeched to a halt after falling victim to the dreaded “blue screen of death” (BSOD) error. The issue affected business as well as banks, transport, and even TV networks.
While many initially attributed the outage to Microsoft, it was discovered later on that software from CrowdStrike – a third-party developer – was the actual cause of the error message. Affected devices and networks were essentially stuck into an unavoidable recovery boot loop, preventing users from starting them up. CrowdStrike’s software is used for Windows security services.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was aware of the issue and issued a formal statement (via his socials) addressing the BSOD error. He comments:
Yesterday, CrowdStrike released an update that began impacting IT systems globally. We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online.
Major entities were affected by the BSOD issue, including several airlines and airports in the United States, UK media network Sky News, and even 911 centres in Alaska. Given the volatile of social media nowadays, many were quick to assume that the indicent was a large-scale cyber attack, although this was not the case. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz states via social media:
CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts… Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.