SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF DEVICES BACK ONLINE AFTER GLOBAL IT OUTAGE – CROWDSTRIKE

CrowdStrike has said that significant number out of the 8.5m devices affected by last week’s global IT outage are back online. According to the cybersecurity company, the incident was a software update/testing and hinted that they are also testing new technique to reboot systems more rapidly even as experts have argued that full recovery from the IT failure of Friday could take weeks.

You would recall that on Friday last week, there were IT outage across the world witnessed by tech companies that are powered by CrowdStrike. Many PCs using the Microsoft windows operating system went down and unable to function due to CrowdStrike failed software update leaving many businesses grounded.

According to CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz ‘‘the problem was caused by a defect in a single content update for Window hosts’’. Many healthcare appointments were disrupted, and thousands of flights cancelled around the world. Critical sectors around the world were affected such as the banking, aviation, health, and financial services.

More than 1,500 flights were cancelled in the US for three consecutive days, in UK over 45 flights were cancelled because the outage affected critical application in its IT. The NHS in Egland confirmed that their systems are back online but there may still be delay as services try to recover especially with GPs needing to rebook appointments.

In an official statement released by CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity company said ‘‘CrowdStrike continues to focus on restoring all systems as soon as possible. Of the approximately 8.5 million Windows devices that were affected, a significant number are back online and operational.’’

If there is one thing to learn from this IT outage, it is that this global IT glitch emphasizes the need for reliance over efficiency, this outage affected about 8.5 million windows, this may be small when compared with window machines around the world but the impact on business and life generally outweighed the number of windows affected. This goes to show how interconnected the world is and the need to build sites and business networks that are reliant and responsive.

Image credit: WIRED -Photo showing travelers stranded at airports due to the CrowdStrike IT outage.