Microsoft has announced that the CrowdStrike update that caused a major IT outage worldwide affected 8.5 million Windows devices.
With this announcement, it has become highly probable that the most extensive IT outage to date has occurred.
The tech giant said in a statement on its corporate blog that this number accounts for less than 1 percent of all Windows devices worldwide.
Technology-based services from aviation to banking are slowly returning to normal following a blackout that affected computer systems worldwide starting Thursday night and continuing through Friday.
But cybersecurity experts warn that the outage creates opportunities for some malware.
Many companies have backlogs and missed orders that can take days to resolve.
While there is no evidence that the CrowdStrike outage was caused by a cyberattack, some malicious attackers are reportedly trying to exploit the situation.
Cybersecurity agencies in the UK and Australia are warning users to be wary of fake emails, fake calls and websites that appear to be legitimate.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz urged users to speak to official representatives of the company before downloading updates.
“We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit such events,” the company said in a statement on its official blog.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) urged people on Friday to be wary of suspicious emails or calls appearing to be for CrowdStrike or Microsoft help.
“We have observed an increase in phishing attacks referencing this outage as malicious actors attempt to take advantage of the situation,” the Cyber Security Center said.
How did the problem start?
The issue began at 9:00 p.m. ET on Thursday and affected Windows users with cybersecurity software CrowdStrike Falcon, according to Microsoft, but the full extent of the problem only became clear on Friday morning.
With the problem spreading worldwide on Friday, many services provided with the Windows operating system were unable to be provided.
Problem statements came one after another from the countries’ basic sectors such as aviation, healthcare, banking and publishing.
The initial reports from Australia and New Zealand in the eastern part of the world soon became clear that they were not limited to that part of the world.
Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest businessmen, described the events as “the biggest IT fiasco ever.”
Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike has admitted that its own updates caused the historic chaos.
The company also noted that the issue only affects Windows devices.
The aviation industry has been hit hard by software chaos.
Flights have been suspended at many airports.
The three major airlines in America, United, Delta and American Airlines, decided not to fly in the first hours.
Turkish Airlines similarly announced flight cancellations.
In the UK, Sky News was unable to broadcast for more than an hour.
What did Microsoft say?
Information technology giant Microsoft also published announcements to mitigate the impact it experienced through the Crowdstrike software it chose for cybersecurity.
The company advised individual users to turn on and off their personal computers:
“It may take several turns (up to 15 times reported) to close and open. However, the general consensus is that closing and opening is an effective method of solving the problem at this stage.”
The company announced that an investigation into the chaos caused by Crowdstrike is ongoing.
Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz also said they were “deeply sorry.”
The first news came from Australia
News of outages related to internet technologies first began to come from countries in the East.
Australia’s largest bank, Commonwealth Bank, said some customers were unable to transfer money due to outages. National airline Qantas and Sydney Airport said flights were continuing with delays.
Some media companies’ broadcasts were interrupted.
“The global issues affecting CrowdStrike and Microsoft are also affecting our systems and some customers are experiencing delays,” Australia-based telecommunications company Telstra said in a statement.
Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness said the outages “suggest a technical issue with a software platform at a third party company”.
What chain of problems did it cause?
The world is faced with a historic cyber chaos. The main reason this chaos has not spread worldwide is because the software platform known as Microsoft 365 is used by millions of people around the world every day.
Employees using programs like Teams and Outlook have reported issues.
After US-based banking giant JP Morgan announced that its ATMs were not working due to a software problem, services only returned to normal on Friday evening.
There were also widespread problems with card payments.
Banking services were also disrupted. It was reported that there were problems with money transfers in Australia.
Many airlines, including Turkish Airlines, announced that they were experiencing problems with electronic transactions and then announced that the problem had eased in the evening hours.
However, the problems experienced during the outage are expected to partially affect operations in the coming days.
In addition, it was noted that train ticketing, which is largely done electronically, is also experiencing problems.
