CrowdStrike ‘actively working’ to fix flaw

LONDON: Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike is “actively working” to fix a “defect” in an update for Microsoft Windows users which sparked a global IT outage, the company’s chief executive said on Friday.

George Kurtz said Mac and Linux users were not impacted by the fault and it was “not a security incident or cyber attack”.He wrote on X: “The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed “We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.

“We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”

In an interview with NBC’s Today Show in the US, Mr Kurtz said the company is “deeply sorry for impact that we’ve caused to customers”. He added the firm is “working with each and every customer to make sure that we can bring them back online”, confirming a “bug” related to a software update was the cause of the outage.

Mr Kurtz said there had been a “negative interaction” between the update and Microsoft’s operating system, which had then caused computers to crash, sparking the outage.The CrowdStrike founder could not give a timeframe for when the issue might be fully resolved, admitting it will be “some time” before all users who did not automatically reboot when receiving the company’s fix are back online.

Asked if he ever thought an outage of this scale was possible, Mr Kurtz said: “Software is a very complex world and there’s a lot of interactions, and always staying ahead of the adversary is a tall task.”

Whitehall crisis officials are co-ordinating the response to the outage.The Cobra system that deals with matters of national emergency or major disruption has been fired up, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said.

Ministers are in touch with their sectors to tackle the fallout from the IT failures, with Transport Secretary Louise Haigh saying she is working “at pace with industry” after trains and flights ground to a halt.

Major infrastructure ground to a halt after computer systems were knocked offline, and devices were showing the so-called “blue screen of death”, affecting key sectors across the country.

The outage was “causing disruption in the majority of GP practices” in England but there was no known impact on 999 or emergency services, NHS England said.Around the world, banks, supermarkets and other major institutions reported computer issues disrupting services, while many businesses were unable to take digital payments.

Overnight, Microsoft warned of “service degradation” which meant users were not able to access many of the tech giant’s most popular services and apps, used by millions of businesses and people around the world.