A software update issued by cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike caused a major disruption that led to a cascade effect affecting global IT systems. The outage impacted industries such as banking, healthcare, and airlines, causing services to be disrupted and delayed with planes grounded. CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity firm that specializes in endpoint security, using cloud technology to protect devices connected to the internet. The issue on Friday was related to an update concerning its Falcon product, which caused machines running Microsoft’s Windows operating system to crash. Microsoft confirmed that the affected update has been pulled by CrowdStrike, and they are working on a fix for the issue. CEO George Kurtz stated that the problem is not a security incident or cyberattack and that a fix has been deployed. Implementing the fix could be challenging, as engineers would need to manually delete certain files and enter encryption keys on each individual data center running Windows. Despite the difficulties, Microsoft and CrowdStrike are working to resolve the issue and anticipate a forthcoming resolution. Businesses worldwide affected by the outage are encouraged to contact CrowdStrike for additional assistance during the recovery process.
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