CrowdStrike: This error led to the biggest IT glitch of all time | Life & Knowledge

If you are a customer of CrowdStrike, you want to make sure that your computer systems are secure and running smoothly – but now the company has caused what is probably the biggest IT failure of all time.

Airports, TV stations, emergency calls – there has been a mega-outage worldwideand the screens only show one thing: the so-called Blue Screen of Death.

But how can a single update paralyze the world? BILD explains the details.

The core of the problem is the Falcon software from CrowdStrikeIt is used by companies to manage the security of Windows PCs and servers, among other things, and is intended to protect the devices from hacker attacks. It is also available for Macs and Linux systems, but these are not affected.

The software has comprehensive access to the computer – And exactly here lies the problem.

Lowest system level affected

According to media reports, the faulty update affects a driver for the computer's kernel. The kernel is the lowest layer of an operating system and the central interface between the hardware and the software. When you turn on a computer, the kernel is the very first thing loaded into memory, followed by the rest of the operating system.

This means that if there is a problem with the kernel, the rest of the system cannot be loaded. Nothing works anymore.

Faulty update sends computer into a loop

This resulted in a so-called boot loop on the computers affected worldwide. The system tries to boot up, but fails due to the faulty software. Windows responds with a blue screen indicating that the operating system could not be loaded correctly. In the IT scene, this is also jokingly known as the “blue screen of death”.

You get the option to restart the computer – and end up back at the blue screen.

In the meantime, CrowdStrike claims to have fixed the problem and has made an update available on its own download portal.

But that doesn't mean that all systems are now working again. The huge problem: If a PC is affected and gets stuck in the boot loop, it can no longer be remotely maintained or updates installed. Technicians now have to install the updates manually – and given the extent of the mega-glitch, that can take a while…