Historic IT Outage Disables 8.5 Million Computers Worldwide

• Microsoft estimates 8.5 million computers were disabled by a CrowdStrike update glitch, marking it as potentially the worst cyber event in history.
• Cybersecurity experts warn of increased hacking attempts exploiting the incident, urging vigilance and reliance on official CrowdStrike channels.

It was a truly remarkable event. Microsoft believes that 8.5 million computer systems around the globe had been disabled due to a recent worldwide IT Outage. This is the first estimate in its type for this outage, which could be the biggest ever cyber-related event.

The cause of the issue was CrowdStrike Security, a company who accidentally released the wrong version of its software to their vast client base. Microsoft is assisting with restoration efforts, and wrote on its blog “We currently estimate that CrowdStrike’s update affected 8.5 million Windows devices.” David Weston, Microsoft’s vice-president stated that this figure amounts to less than one percent of the total number of Windows computers worldwide. But, “the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services.”

Microsoft is able to accurately determine the amount of devices disabled because of its telemetry performance that is connected to numerous devices over the internet. Microsoft asserted that it wasn’t an issue in its software, and emphasized the significance of testing the quality of its upgrades prior to deploying. “It’s also a reminder of how important it is for all of us across the tech ecosystem to prioritize operating with safe deployment and disaster recovery using the mechanisms that exist,” Mr. Weston said.

The aftermath of this IT issue has been catastrophic and is already being regarded in the top ten most damaging cybersecurity incidents of all time. Microsoft’s estimates suggest that this may be the most significant cyber incident in history, topping previous big events such as 2017’s WannaCry attack that impacted more than 300,000 computers in 150 nations, as well as the following NotPetya attack.

In contrast, the 6-hour interruption for Meta in 2021, that caused problems for Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp however, was not as significant and mostly limited by the giant social media company as well as a few of its associated companies.

The massive downtime is also prompting alarms from experts in cybersecurity as well as agencies across the world about the possibility of a rise in potential attacks on hackers that are connected to the issue. The agencies from the UK as well as Australia have advised caution against false emails, calls and websites that claim to represent legitimate organizations.

The CrowdStrike CEO, George Kurtz, urged users to make sure they speak with representatives from the company prior to downloading any updates. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” the CEO wrote in a blog entry.

If significant events in the news particularly those that are connected to technological developments and hackers are able to adapt strategies to take advantage of the uncertainty and fear that follows. Researchers from Secureworks have noticed a significant rise in the number of domain registrations based on CrowdStrike that are created by hackers to create sites that look legitimate to fool IT administrators or users to download malicious software or revealing personal information.

Security agencies across the world have suggested IT responders to solely rely on the official CrowdStrike website to get information and help. Although this recommendation is mostly directed towards IT administrators who are working on restoring the systems of their companies However, anyone should be aware and rely on the information provided by official channels of CrowdStrike.