Security experts have revealed that a recent routine update to CrowdStrike's widely-used cybersecurity software caused a major global disruption due to inadequate quality checks before deployment. The update, designed to enhance security by updating threat defenses, instead led to one of the largest tech outages in recent years for systems running Microsoft’s Windows OS.
The faulty code in the update affected global banks, airlines, hospitals, and government offices. While CrowdStrike has issued fixes, restoring affected systems is a slow process involving manual removal of the problematic code. Experts suggest the update might have bypassed thorough vetting or sandboxing processes, which should have identified the issue.
Problems became evident quickly, with users sharing images of error screens on social media. Security researcher Patrick Wardle traced the issue to a problematic file containing configuration data or malware signatures. Wardle noted that the high frequency of updates might have contributed to the inadequate testing of this release.
The faulty update highlights the risks of not testing updates in a limited environment first. This incident echoes past issues with other security companies, such as McAfee’s 2010 antivirus update problem, but the scale of the disruption underscores CrowdStrike’s widespread use among major corporations and government agencies.
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