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Company Crowdstrike Causes Global IT Chaos – Stock Plummets
Crowdstrike has taken responsibility for the IT chaos
© Anadolu | Harun Ozalp / Picture Alliance
The stock of the cybersecurity company plummeted sharply after an update error crippled operations for many companies around the world
The stock of cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike has lost nearly 20 percent after it caused a global IT chaos. Its software is supposed to make IT systems safer.
“Falcon Sensor” – the product name of the IT security service from the California company promises the sharpness of a hawk’s vision for threat defense. The security monitoring solution is designed to detect and prevent threats at an early stage.
The “Falcon Sensor” is a system that monitors activities in real-time and is designed to block attacks. Security expert Jürgen Schmidt from Heise Security describes it as “a kind of next-generation antivirus program” that is mainly used by large companies. “End customers usually do not use such systems. Nevertheless, they naturally face the problems that arise with service providers, companies, and authorities as a result of their use.”
Computers Would Not Boot
How widespread Crowdstrike’s security solution is worldwide could be seen on Friday morning. For many Crowdstrike customers, nothing worked anymore because their computers only displayed the notorious error message “Blue Screen of Death” and could not boot up. Many users who are not direct customers of Crowdstrike but use the Microsoft Service 365 were also affected.
An error in a Crowdstrike update for Windows was responsible, wrote company CEO George Kurtz on the platform X. He allayed fears that his company itself had fallen victim to a cyberattack: “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The problem has been identified, isolated, and a fix provided.” Crowdstrike is actively working with customers affected by a defect found in a single update for Windows computers. Mac and Linux computers were not affected.
In the coming days, the CEO will have to answer many critical questions. The automatic deployment of a faulty update that crashes many thousands of computers worldwide could indicate deficiencies in quality assurance. Crowdstrike shareholders also want conclusive answers. Following the global computer problems, the company’s stock came under pressure. Although the share recovered somewhat by Friday afternoon, it remained significantly below the values of previous days.
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