A week after an automatic update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused a massive global crash of Windows computers, 97 percent of all systems are said to have been recovered, the company’s CEO reports on LinkedIn.
Some 8.5 million Windows computers around the world suddenly wouldn’t boot last Friday, stuck on a “blue screen of death.” Banks, airports, hospitals and government organizations were in trouble.
On LinkedIn, the company’s CEO, George Kurtz, writes that more than 97 percent of all affected Windows systems are working again. In about 3 percent of cases, the problem persists. Kurtz says he is “very sorry” about this. The CEO thanks his employees and customers for their “tireless efforts”. He also says that he is taking measures to ensure that this will never happen again.
CrowdStrike’s software is used professionally worldwide to protect computers from malware and security breaches. That’s why the impact was so great. Kurtz will soon have to answer to the US Congress. Since the software crash, CrowdStrike’s stock has imploded: it has fallen by 20 percent. Billions of dollars in market value have evaporated.