Software update leads to world's largest IT disaster.
1min read Many companies and individuals around the world experienced a widespread computer failure known as a "blue screen of death" on Friday. This is a common failure that occurs when a computer overheats, but this time it was the result of a software update to the Falcon product by CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company.
A software update error by CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company, caused a cascade effect on Friday that affected IT systems worldwide, causing outages across industries from banks to airlines.
The outage resulted in service disruptions for banks and healthcare providers, and television broadcasters went off air. Meanwhile, many companies around the world were struggling to cope with the ongoing outage.
The problem centered on CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity software company based in Texas, which was in disarray on Friday after a software update problem.
CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity software company that develops software to help companies detect and stop cyber attacks. Its cybersecurity software is used by many Fortune 500 companies, including major global banks, healthcare and energy companies.
CrowdStrike is a so-called "endpoint security" company because it uses cloud technology to provide network protection for devices connected to the internet.
This is different from the alternative approach used by other cybersecurity companies, which involves directly applying protection to back-end server systems.
Nick France, chief technology officer at IT security company Sectigo, said on Friday: "Many companies use CrowdStrike software and install it on all their computers across the organization. So when there is a potential problem with an update, it can cause a reboot and people can't use their computers."
