Recent Global CrowdStrike Outage Affected Microsoft, Gmail, Visa, and Banking Companies

Leading cybersecurity company CrowdStrike suffered a significant Global outage on July 19th, 2024, which had an impact on numerous businesses worldwide. A recent update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon sensor caused crashes on Windows hosts which was the root of the problem. This outage affected several industries globally, including banks, supermarkets, telephones, and even the police force. Airports and other vital infrastructure experienced operational delays due to the significant impact on Microsoft 365 apps and services. 

Microsoft Blue Screen From The Recent CrowdStrike Outage

There were numerous major drawbacks resulting from the CrowdStrike outage:

1. Operational Disruptions: Airlines such as Frontier and AirAsia were severely impacted by delays and ground halts at airports, particularly those in the US and Australia.

2. Service Outages: There were outages related to Microsoft 365 programs and services, which affected banks, police departments, supermarkets, and telephones. 

3. Users’ Inconvenience: People had trouble getting access to necessary services, which caused delays and longer lines, especially in industries that depend on cloud services.

4. Economic Impact: Due to the outage, companies who depended on the impacted services had to deal with operational and possibly even financial losses.

From the CrowdStrike outage today, we can learn several key lessons:

1. Importance of Testing: testing is important because it can stop widespread problems. Updates should be thoroughly tested in controlled conditions leveraging duplicate systems before promoting into Production or the Wild

2. Gradual Rollouts: By releasing updates gradually, issues can be found and fixed early on.

3. Robust Monitoring: Modern monitoring systems are capable of quickly identifying and resolving problems.

4. Effective Communication: This is essential, especially during incidents with users and stakeholders. Planning for business continuity involves making sure backup procedures are set up to reduce disruptions to operations during power outages.

5. Roll-backup strategies: If you ‘brick’ a system how can you roll back to a known good state. This requires an evaluation of your disaster recovery procedures

This tragedy highlights the significance of proper testing and crisis management in protecting against technical vulnerabilities as businesses seek to minimize the consequences. Strong and dependable cybersecurity solutions are desperately needed, as demonstrated by the recent CrowdStrike outage. At Complete Cyber, we are aware of the particular difficulties that companies have in safeguarding their systems and digital assets. Don’t rely solely on luck when it comes to security, make sure your systems are protected against future threats. 

Make an appointment for a thorough consultation with us right now to find out how our tailored solutions can protect your company and take the first step towards a more secure future!