Media Follow-up Story: CrowdStrike IT Outage Affected 8.5 Million Windows Devices, Microsoft Says.

On July 20, 2024, Microsoft revealed that a recent global IT outage caused by a corrupted software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike had disabled an estimated 8.5 million Windows devices worldwide.

CrowdStrike IT Outage Affected 8.5 Million CrowdStrike IT Outage Affected 8.5 Million Windows Devices, Microsoft Says.Windows Devices, Microsoft Says | Utopia Newswire

This is the first time a specific number has been provided for the scale of the incident, which Microsoft says is less than 1% of all Windows devices globally. However, the tech giant noted that "the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services."

Microsoft was able to provide this accurate estimate thanks to its visibility into device telemetry data across the internet. The company was quick to point out that this was not an issue with its own software, but rather highlighted the importance of rigorous quality control checks on updates before they are deployed by firms like CrowdStrike.

"It's also a reminder of how important it is for all of us across the tech ecosystem to prioritize operating with safe deployment and disaster recovery using the mechanisms that exist," said David Weston, Vice President of Enterprise and OS at Microsoft.

Experts are now considering this incident to be one of the largest cyber events in history, surpassing previous major incidents like the WannaCry and NotPetya attacks in 2017. The closest comparison is the six-hour outage that affected Meta's platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, in 2021.

The fallout from the CrowdStrike IT glitch has been enormous, prompting warnings from cybersecurity agencies around the world about a wave of opportunistic hacking attempts. Threat actors are already registering malicious, CrowdStrike-themed domains in an effort to trick IT managers and the public into downloading malware or handing over sensitive information.

Cybersecurity agencies are urging IT responders and individuals alike to only trust information and updates coming directly from CrowdStrike's official channels as the recovery efforts continue. Maintaining vigilance against these types of scams will be crucial in the aftermath of this unprecedented cyber event.

Reference:

Joe T. (20 Jul, 2024). CrowdStrike IT Outage Affected 8.5 Million Windows Devices, Microsoft Says. BBC News.

Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpe3zgznwjno

CrowdStrike IT outage affected 8.5 million Windows devices, Microsoft says (bbc.co.uk)