On July 19, 2024, many devices using Windows experienced a series crashes and blue screens of death on a global scale. Many businesses suddenly found themselves inoperational, with airlines and healthcare providers taking the biggest hit.
This issue wasn’t caused by a hidden Windows bug or a cyber-attack, but rather a faulty update by CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company. An adjustment to Windows’ Falcon sensor configuration ended up becoming a fatal logic error.
CrowdStrike quickly rolled the update back and provided remediation steps. The process of restoring affected systems required manual intervention on each impacted device. While CrowdStrike managed to avoid significant liability, the company saw its stock value plummet as a result.
Despite the financial loss, this event was a valuable lesson showing where the weaknesses of global IT systems lie. Now the tech giants will be sure to have contingency plans in place. Now a single update will not be able to plunge the world into chaos again.
To learn more about the CrowdStrike blackout, read this article by CNBC.
If you want to read more about how to ensure your system’s security, be sure to read about how to take care of data security in React Native on our blog.
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