The Microsoft Corp. Windows Recovery screen displayed at a currency exchange kiosk during a worldwide systems outage at Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong, China, on July 19, 2024. Computer systems failed across the globe on Friday, taking down services at airlines, banks and the London Stock Exchange after a widely used cybersecurity program crashed and Microsoft separately reported problems with its cloud services. — Bloomberg
An outage that crippled businesses around the world turned many Microsoft computers into bricks overnight.
That means a lot of people are seeing the blue screen of death as computers continually try to reboot. The issues stemmed from a faulty software update delivered to Microsoft devices and servers from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company that mainly works to help protect bigger companies from attacks.
On July 19, CrowdStrike said it had issued a software update fix that should repair the computers, and it posted instructions for manually fixing the problem. Customers can also call the company. But cybersecurity experts said the process might still be complicated.
Here’s what to do if you’re affected.
Why is your computer crashing?
If your computer is bricked, you’re not alone. The problem, cybersecurity experts say, is with a bug in an overnight update caused by a bad file, which essentially sends the computers into an endless loop of reboots. That means the fix that CrowdStrike sent may not be able to repair your systems from afar.
About 300 companies on the Fortune 500 list are CrowdStrike customers, and it is the second-largest independent cybersecurity firm in the United States. If you work for a big company that is affected, your IT department will most likely need to be involved.
Adam Harrison, a managing director at FTI Consulting, which works with companies on their cybersecurity strategies, said smaller businesses were “less likely” to be using these kinds of security tools, although he added that many small businesses relied on vendors or suppliers who did.
So what should you do?
The truth is you probably can’t do all that much. Cybersecurity experts are saying that if a computer has entered a doomloop, it will most likely take an expert to fix it.
If you do happen to be tech savvy, CrowdStrike has posted instructions on its website advising customers to put computers into a recovery mode. Then, you would need to delete the file that is causing the problem.
But that might be more complicated than you’d expect, cybersecurity experts say. For example, businesses may be operating hundreds or thousands of computers, which would increase the work required to bring its systems back online, Harrison said. Or, if you work at a retail store, the self-checkout kiosks frequently don’t have mouses or keyboards – and there most likely isn’t an IT specialist on site to help.
“There’s lots of complexity in solving this problem,” he said.
“This is millions of computers around the world,” said Mikko Hypponen, a security expert and chief research officer at WithSecure, a cybersecurity company. “Many of them are at home because of remote work. It’s going to take a long while, several days if not weeks, to fix them all if you have to go and physically touch every machine.”
Can CrowdStrike fix the issue remotely?
Not necessarily. CrowdStrike has tweaked the faulty update already. That means computers that did not already download the software won’t crash.
But machines that are already affected by the issue are stuck in a loop where they keep rebooting, making it harder to update them from afar. It is possible that CrowdStrike or someone else will come up with a way to automate the process of fixing the problem, which could make it easier for you or your employer to address the issue.
George Kurtz, the CEO of CrowdStrike, said in an interview with the “Today” show that the update had been able to break through to some computers while they were rebooting, allowing them to receive the fix automatically. But many computers remain offline, and will require a manual fix.
What are Microsoft and CrowdStrike saying about the outage?
In a post on the social platform X, Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, said, “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.”
In a separate statement, Microsoft said to contact CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike advised customers who communicated through official channels.
“We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption,” Kurtz said in a statement. “We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.” – The New York Times
