What happened to Microsoft outage? CrowdStrike, a leading American cybersecurity software company, is in the spotlight due to a faulty update that has caused massive disruptions in Windows systems worldwide. This event has been dubbed a “global IT blackout” and primarily affects Mexico City International Airport (AICM) in Mexico.
Despite its reputation as a security solutions provider for large organizations, including banks and airlines, the company has faced controversies in the past.
In 2014, a group of hackers exploited a vulnerability in CrowdStrike’s software to access confidential data from Sony Pictures, including employee personal information, emails, salary data, and unreleased movies.
Despite this incident, CrowdStrike has maintained its position as a security provider for numerous major companies, such as Aena, Visa, and Repsol.
Microsoft outage: Who is behind CrowdStrike?
Founded in 2012 by George Kurtz, a former McAfee employee, CrowdStrike has grown to become a leading provider of security software. Its platform is widely recognized and used by some of the world’s most important companies to protect their systems.
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The Falcon Cloud Security Service: Responsible for the Chaos
The global Microsoft outage affecting airports, banks, and other businesses this Friday appears to be due, at least in part, to a software update issued by CrowdStrike.
The company itself has acknowledged that a corrupt update in its Falcon Cloud Security service, a cloud-based threat detection tool for Windows and Azure systems, is the cause of the crashes.
The error has already been identified and the update withdrawn, but the task of fixing the problem on affected systems remains challenging.
CrowdStrike in the Political Spotlight
CrowdStrike is no stranger to controversy. The company gained notoriety for its role in investigating the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee computers during the 2016 U.S. elections.
Since then, it has been the subject of false conspiracy theories, especially after a White House transcript revealed that former President Donald Trump mentioned CrowdStrike in his July 2016 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which led to his first impeachment trial.
What Does CrowdStrike Do?
CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software, used by numerous Fortune 500 companies, requires deep-level access to a computer’s operating system to search for threats.
In this case, computers running Microsoft Windows appear to be failing due to the faulty way a software update issued by CrowdStrike interacts with the Windows system.
The company assured that the so-called global IT blackout was not caused by a security incident or cyberattack and that engineers have implemented an update to fix the issue.
However, the incident raises questions about companies’ reliance on third-party software providers and the importance of having contingency plans to deal with unexpected disruptions.
