Experts believe CrowdStrike update causing global outage skipped quality checks

Security experts have criticised CrowdStrike for the lack of quality checks on a recent update of its Falcon sensor software, which led to a global tech outage on Friday. The faulty update, intended to enhance security against hacking, caused widespread disruptions affecting global banks, airlines, hospitals, and government offices.

The issue arose from problematic code within the update, resulting in systems running Microsoft’s Windows operating system crashing. The failure was visible on users’ screens as ‘blue screens of death,’ and restoring affected systems requires manually removing the flawed code. According to experts, the oversight likely occurred due to inadequate vetting or sandboxing of the update.

CrowdStrike’s response includes providing information to fix the issue, but experts say the resolution will be time-consuming. The incident highlights the risks associated with frequent updates and the importance of thorough testing. Similar issues have occurred with other security firms, but the global impact underscores CrowdStrike’s extensive reach, serving over half of Fortune 500 companies and major government agencies.