Microsoft says CrowdStrike bug affected 8.5 million Windows devices

Microsoft asserted that it is “working around the clock and providing ongoing updates and support”

July 21, 2024

Millions of devices affected by CrowdStrike failure as recovery to ‘take weeks’

IT giant, Microsoft has reported that the CrowdStrike update, which caused disruptions to online services and grounded hundreds of flights globally, affected 8.5 million systems running Windows. This number represents less than 1% of all Windows devices. However, the impact was disproportionately significant due to the widespread use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that rely on critical services.

Microsoft asserted that it is “working around the clock and providing ongoing updates and support”.

“Additionally, CrowdStrike has helped us develop a scalable solution that will help Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure accelerate a fix for CrowdStrike’s faulty update,” a statement from Microsoft said.

The disruptions were serious enough for the White House to say that President Joe Biden had been briefed about it and teams of US officials were in touch with private sector players to find an early resolution.

“While software updates may occasionally cause disturbances, significant incidents like the CrowdStrike event are infrequent,” Microsoft said.

“We currently estimate that CrowdStrike’s update affected 8.5 million Windows devices or less than 1 percent of all Windows machines. While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services,” it added.

Microsoft also said that the outage demonstrated the “interconnected nature of our broad ecosystem — global Cloud providers, software platforms, security vendors and other software vendors, and customers”.

The outage was also a reminder, the company noted, saying “It showed 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”.

CrowdStrike, a prominent cybersecurity firm, issued a software update on Friday that affected computer systems running Microsoft’s Windows operating system. This update led to the grounding of approximately 1,400 flights across multiple countries including the US, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Hong Kong, and Dubai. Furthermore, it caused disruptions to medical services, banking operations, and local transportation systems in various cities across the United States.

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