Billionaire Big Tech mogul Elon Musk recently said on X, formerly Twitter, that he already deleted the CrowdStrike cybersecurity software from all the systems of his companies, including SpaceX, Tesla, X, xAI, The Boring Company and Neuralink.
On July 19, an update broke Windows, causing systems to crash and display the blue screen of death. This caused a major disruption in airports, banks, hospitals, broadcasting networks and many other industries' operations, impacting 8.5 million computers around the world.
"All-In" podcast host Jason Calacanis asked on X: "I guess CrowdStrike doesn't do staged rollouts?" Musk responded to the thread confirming the deletion of the software "from all our systems, so no rollouts at all."
CrowdStrike admitted that its Falcon Sensor threat-monitoring product sparked worldwide chaos and crashed Microsoft's Windows operating systems. CrowdStrike shares went down about 10 percent, while Microsoft lost about half a percent.
"We understand the profound impact this has had on everyone. We know our customers, partners and their IT teams are working tirelessly and we’re profoundly grateful," CrowdStrike said. "We apologize for the disruption this has created."
"Friday's global tech outage is an example of an unforeseen event that market participants always fear, but don't frequently think about," said Glen Smith, chief investment officer at GDS Wealth Management. "While there are sizable declines in the stocks of the individual companies that are closest to this tech outage, we expect the broader markets to look past Friday's outage."
Following the disruption, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadell wrote on X: "Yesterday, CrowdStrike released an update that began impacting IT systems globally. We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online."
Musk also replied to the post saying that the IT disruption "gave a seizure to the automotive supply chain."
Moreover, the outage also delayed FedEx and United Parcel Service deliveries. Bloomberg reported that FedEx was seeing "substantial disruptions throughout our networks" due to third-party issues, as per its website. The company implemented contingency plans but said delays are likely for parcels.
Meanwhile, UPS said that some of its computer systems were affected and they looked at workarounds that minimized interruptions. Its planes continued to operate and drivers were still on the road.
Flight tracking website FlightAware reported that nearly 1,500 flights have been delayed, with 385 canceled flights.
"The FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] is closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines," the federal agency wrote in a statement. "Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops for their fleets until the issue is resolved." (Related: UK experiences nationwide airport system outage, unleashing travel chaos.)
CrowdStrike: "Significant number" of impacted devices are back online
CrowdStrike reported that they already restored a significant number of devices affected by the botched software update. However, experts warned that it could take weeks for global tech infrastructure to fully recover.
Over the weekend, Microsoft released a recovery tool to help repair Windows machines hit by the glitch that affected millions of devices all over the world.
"CrowdStrike tested a new technique to accelerate impacted system remediation. We're in the process of operationalizing an opt-in to this technique. Customers are encouraged to follow the Tech Alerts for the latest updates as they happen and they will be notified when action is needed," it said on its website. "We will continue to provide updates here as information becomes available and new fixes are deployed."
Meanwhile, Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of the United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), said "the worst" of the global IT outage was over but he emphasized that it is "likely" to occur again unless governments and industry work together to "design out" technological flaws.
The founding chief executive of the NCSC told Sky News: "The worst of this is over because the nature of the crisis was such that it went very badly wrong, very quickly. It was spotted quite quickly and, essentially, it was turned off."
George Kurtz, founder and CEO of CrowdStrike, said the issue that affected millions of Windows devices "was not a security or cyber incident." He posted on X: "Our customers remain fully protected."
Visit Glitch.news for more stories related to technological outages and disruptions.
Watch the video below that talks about the link between the CrowdStrike outage and a possible election theft.
This video is from Ron Gibson's channel on Brighteon.com.
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