According to K. Airs
The app, which is suspected to be the leading cause of computer crashes around the world, ironically aims to protect PCs from hackers. Crowdstrike is a cybersecurity service designed to stop online data breaches for the world's largest companies. However, the botched update is believed to have brought the world to its knees.
The software update is believed to have sent servers, desktops, laptops and corporate computer terminals into a death spiral of reboots and a so-called “blue screen of death” with the error message: “DRIVER_OVERRAN_STACK_BUFFER.”
“Crowdstrike is aware of reports of outages on Windows hosts related to the Falcon sensor,” the company acknowledged in a statement as the disaster unfolded around the world. Computer analysts believe a poorly written piece of code in an update triggered the disaster and brought down computer networks around the world. Experts have already proposed a partial solution for some users that allows them to boot into Safe Mode and rename the Crowdstrike folder.
But this will only work on computers with the lowest security level.
And those with a higher level of protection (such as those using a Bitlocker hard drive to protect their data, which is used on the most secure systems and computers) may have to wait several days before they can be fixed.
The update caused chaos around the world: flights were cancelled, supermarkets closed, banks stopped operating and TV channels stopped broadcasting. “The computing crisis we're currently seeing due to a technical issue in the Crowdstrike agent is unprecedented on a scale we haven't seen in years,” said Amiram Shahar, founder of rival security company Upwind. “This has already had a huge impact on critical infrastructure around the world, including hospitals, banks, airports and communications services. “As the agent causes Windows systems in organizations to go offline, millions of businesses are affected because most organizations deploy updates automatically. “Given that the Crowdstrike agent is installed on millions of devices, from servers to PCs to IoT devices, the damage is unprecedented.”
Crowdstrike is designed to protect computer networks from hackers who can cause the same chaos that is being seen around the world. “Proven, tested, and easy-to-use protection—so you can focus on your business while we focus on security,” their website boasts. Crowdstrike was founded in 2011 by George Kurtz, Dmitry Alperovich and Gregg Marston and launched its Falcon security service two years later. Dmitry Alperovich left Crowdstrike in 2020 and founded the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a non-profit organization focused on addressing policy issues related to great power competition between the United States and its adversaries. The organization focuses in particular on policy issues related to cybersecurity. In addition, he became the chief advisor to the Cybersecurity Review Board (CSRB).
Crowdstrike went public in 2019, traded at $83 five years ago and has since skyrocketed to $343.
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