Understanding the Recent Global Outages Caused by CrowdStrike

On July 19th, 2024, a significant disruption hit organizations worldwide due to a faulty component in the latest CrowdStrike update. This update caused Windows systems it was installed on to crash, leading to massive outages that affected crucial services and industries globally.

What is CrowdStrike?

• CrowdStrike is a leading cybersecurity company that provides endpoint protection software.
• Falcon is CrowdStrike's flagship software designed to prevent and respond to cyber-attacks.

What Happened?

• After CrowdStrike released their faulty update, due to it's widespread use, key service providers and platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft 365, Azure, Visa, and AT&T, experienced outages.
• This incident has led to significant disruptions across banks, airports, healthcare organizations, and numerous other businesses, including the London Stock Exchange, Deloitte, Xero, and the Commonwealth Bank.
• It’s expected that there will be a subsequent impact on downstream organizations as more news comes to light.

What's Next?

• CrowdStrike has since sent a technical alert, explaining the issue and providing a workaround to delete the problematic file in Safe Mode.
• Despite CrowdStrike rolling back the update, many machines remained affected.
• The fallout from this incident is expected to linger as organizations work to restore normalcy.
• Microsoft also acknowledged the issue of the CrowdStrike update has caused persistent crashes on Windows systems and briefly impacted some Microsoft 365 services. According to Microsoft, all mission-critical services are expected to be fully restored at this point.

At Abacus Group, we prioritize the security and stability of our clients' systems. Our fully-managed standard abacusFlex Hybrid and Public Cloud clients using SentinelOne have experienced no disruptions. Additionally, at this moment, none of Abacus Group’s underlying technology partners are experiencing any outages.

Our engineering team continues to monitor this situation closely to maintain stability and security.

As an industry-leading technology and cybersecurity services provider, Abacus Group is committed to supporting our clients and financial organizations impacted by this disruption. We will continue to provide updates and insight on this global situation.

If our clients need any assistance or have concerns, please contact our Helpdesk or your Client Experience Manager:

• Helpdesk US: +1 (866) 997-3999
• Helpdesk UK: +44 (0) 20 7936 1799