The recent CrowdStrike update has led to a significant and widespread issue, causing numerous Windows systems to experience Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors.

This incident highlights the critical role of cybersecurity software while simultaneously exposing potential vulnerabilities in such systems. The outage has impacted businesses, government agencies, and individuals globally, leading to severe productivity losses.

The widespread impact of the CrowdStrike update, causing numerous Windows 10 systems to be stuck on the recovery screen, is a significant disruption for both individuals and businesses.

A large number of users are unable to access their systems, leading to productivity losses and frustration. Organizations heavily reliant on Windows systems are facing operational challenges and potential financial losses.

There is a major disruption on July 19th due to a Microsoft outage. Microsoft experienced a global outage, this has affected various services worldwide, including cloud computing platforms.

There is strong impact on Airlines in India: Check-in systems at major airports (Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru) went down, causing delays and commotion for passengers. Airlines like IndiGo, Akasa, and SpiceJet were particularly affected.

Airline officials confirmed the issue was with the GoNow check-in system, which faced a global outage due to the Microsoft glitch. This technical error caused problems for users beyond airlines, impacting media, financial, telecom, and bank services.

Back home, airline officials said that impact on flights so far has been minimal, some flights being delayed as airlines are using alternate methods like Excel to check-in and manage booking services. The carriers have also started manual check-in to ensure minimal disruption to passengers and flight schedules. However, web-check in feature temporarily unavailable for passengers across India.

IndiGo also tweeted, "Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies. During this time booking, check-in, access to your boarding pass, and some flights may be impacted. We appreciate your patience."

Bengaluru's international airport spokesperson added that Indigo, Akasa, and SpiceJet in T1 and Air India Express in T2 are among the impacted airlines. The Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE) and Common Use Self Service (CUSS) systems are also experiencing disruptions. To avoid more issues, airlines at the airport are handing out manual check-ins.

The outage potentially led to flight cancellations due to issues with check-in. It is a major tech issue caused significant disruptions in India and around the world.

The impact of the CrowdStrike update on Windows systems in India is particularly severe, with multiple large multinational companies reporting widespread issues.

CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows hosts related to the Falcon Sensor. Symptoms include hosts experiencing a bugcheck\blue screen error related to the Falcon Sensor.The problem was caused by an update to its Falcon antivirus software, designed to protect Microsoft Windows devices from malicious attacks.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued a critical advisory following reports that a recent update to the CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor has led to widespread outages and crashes in Windows hosts. The advisory, designated CIAD-2024-0035, highlights that affected systems are experiencing the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

The issue arose after a recent update to the CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor, which is widely used for endpoint protection. The update has caused Windows systems to crash, rendering them inoperative. CrowdStrike has since reverted the problematic changes, but many systems remain affected. The advisory includes specific steps for users to mitigate the issue if their systems are still crashing:

1. Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment.
2. Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory.
3. Delete the file matching the pattern C-00000291*.sys.
4. Reboot the system normally.

As per the source, the company claims, our Engineering teams are actively working to resolve this issue and there is no need to open a support ticket. Status updates will be posted below as we have more information to share, including when the issue is resolved.

Omer Grossman, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at CyberArk said, the current event appears – even in July – that it will be one of the most significant cyber issues of 2024. The damage to business processes at the global level is dramatic. The glitch is due to a software update of CrowdStrike's EDR product. This is a product that runs with high privileges that protects endpoints. A malfunction in this can, as we are seeing in the current incident, cause the operating system to crash.

George Kurtz, CEO,CrowdStrike   took to Twitter (X), to offer some explanation. He wrote, "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack."

There are two main issues on the agenda: The first is how customers get back online and regain continuity of business processes. It turns out that because the endpoints have crashed - the Blue Screen of Death - they cannot be updated remotely and this the problem must be solved manually, endpoint by endpoint. This is expected to be a process that will take days.

The second is around what caused the malfunction. The range of possibilities ranges from human error - for instance a developer who downloaded an update without sufficient quality control - to the complex and intriguing scenario of a deep cyberattack, prepared ahead of time and involving an attacker activating a "doomsday command" or “kill switch”. CrowdStrike's analysis and updates in the coming days will be of the utmost interest.

Crowdstrike shares plunged as much as 21% in early pre-market trade. Microsoft also lost ground, as did travel and leisure stocks, as investors weighed the potential disruption for holidaymakers.