CROWDSTRIKE APOLOGISES
Microsoft estimated Saturday that 8.5 million Windows devices were affected in the global IT crash, adding that the number amounted to less than 1 per cent of all Windows machines.
“While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services”, it said.
Microsoft said the issue began at 1900 GMT on Thursday, affecting Windows users running the CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity software.
In a Saturday blog post, CrowdStrike said it had released an update on Thursday night that had caused a system crash and the infamous “blue screen of death” fatal error message.
CrowdStrike said it had rolled out a fix for the problem, and the company’s boss, George Kurtz, told US news channel CNBC he wanted to “personally apologise to every organisation, every group and every person who has been impacted”.
The company also said it could take a few days for things to fully get back to normal.
Britain’s National Health Service was hobbled by the crash on Friday, preventing doctors from accessing patient records and booking appointments.
A “majority of systems … are now coming back online in most areas, however they are still running slightly slower than usual”, an NHS spokesperson said, warning of disruption continuing into next week.
Media companies were also hit, with Britain’s Sky News saying the glitch had ended its Friday morning news broadcasts. Australia’s ABC also reported major difficulties.
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