The software company CrowdStrike says that the a major computer outage affecting banks, businesses, airports, and even Alaska’s 911 emergency system was not a cyberattack. Instead, it’s a “single content update” is to blame for the meltdown, but that the patch for the error “has been deployed,” referring customers to its support portal for updates.
Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted, the company said.
It’s the kind of widespread computer disruption that was expected when the year 2000 rolled around, due to expected computer errors related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates. The worldwide disruption, however, was anticipated and was mostly avoided when the clock struck 12 on Jan. 1, 2000.
The current outage has stranded thousands of travelers, including Alaska Republican delegates and guests coming back from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where the airport is experiencing what would be one of its busiest days of the year.
Members of the Alaska delegation to the convention who are flying Delta are experiencing up to two-hour delays leaving Milwaukee or Chicago, sources said, but Alaska Airlines flights were operating normally.
“With the global technology issue impacting several airlines this morning, please check your flight status directly with your carrier. Longer lines and wait times are possible, please allow extra time,” Chicago O’Hare International Airport said on Facebook.
Although Alaska Airlines was not impacted directly, it felt the effects of transfer passengers not showing up for flights.
Airlines and airports around the world are feeling the domino effects.
In Anchorage, state courts and some hospital services were impacted.
By 6:45 a.m., Alaska’s 911 system had been restored, according to a notice by the Alaska State Troopers.
In Seattle, Seattle Children’s Hospital clinics closed, as are most Social Security offices. In Southern California, Boston and New York, court proceedings and operations were disrupted as workers were unable to log into their computer workstations.
One major impact was to bump a lot of the news about the Republican National Convention off of the pages of America’s news websites, as the focus turned to CrowdStrike.
What is CrowdStrike?
CrowdStrike is a dominant supplier of software that businesses use to protect from ransomware attacks. Over half of Fortune 500 companies use the software. According to the company’s website, Crowdstrike hs been around since 2012 and currently has the “world’s most advanced cloud-native platform that protects and enables the people, processes and technologies that drive modern enterprise.”
CrowdStrike gained infamy by being involved in the DNC “data breach” and Russian conspiracy theories used against Trump to keep him out of office, and when that failed, obstruct implementation of his policies. The young Democratic operative conveniently was murdered, was called a “random” crime.
Doesn’t the Democratic non-nominee HC get credit for that take down…Another score for the Killing Field.
It would seem as if CrowdStrike has a monopoly on ransomware security. How many other companies provide this service? It also seems as if CrowdStrike has THE power over the world’s economies, etc.
And they want a digital money system.. That’ll be just fine. Right???
Yikes. So lame.
We’re so fragile, we are doomed.
With a name like CrowdStrike, you can be assured that this company does not actually have the public’s best interest at heart.
Something about Russiagate and other shadowy behavior related to a certain Seth Rich.
Interesting that they are in the news again, even more interesting to know they are involved with cyber infrastructure that happens to affect so much of USA services.
It is not a bug, its a feature.
Beta test for bigger things to come.
Maybe I have this straight… A major anti-virus/anti-ransomware company owns up to unleashing a simple virus that takes out much of the internet worldwide… Hmm, sales tool and advertising anyone? I smell hunger for money and power. Even releasing a “fix” – deleting one file that had to be done on each computer individually – shows their intimate knowledge of the virus and our vulnerabilities. This smacks of an anti-malware company in the mid-90s that sent trojans to everyone on their contact list claiming they alone had the cure and please pony up for your new and improved…
This is evil – and it could easily happen again.
They are practicing up for late October/early November.
Maybe this was a test…
The more we all sign onto the same “cloud-based” services, the more vulnerable we will be when China decides to disrupt these systems in order to distract us while it invades Taiwan.
I learned today that Crowdstrike has a Ukraine connection, in fact Trump asked the penis piano player Zelensky about Cloudstrike during that infamous telephone call that led to Trumps first impeachment.
Funny how these things keep popping up.
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