A global IT outage caused by the CrowdStrike security service has affected companies and services worldwide.
The glitch has highlighted the risk of large server platforms.
On Friday, a significant failure occurred in the management systems of large infrastructures, including airports, due to a bug in the CrowdStrike security app deployed on the Microsoft Azure cloud.
Experts believe that a bug in the latest update of a driver for that app caused a serious error, which provoked the affected computers to shut down.
This error had widespread effects, impacting not only air traffic but also other services such as hospitals, banks, and emergency services globally. The incident resulted in widespread chaos, with the common denominator being Windows’ infamous “blue screen of death."
The Blue Screen of Death… and Chaos
The “blue screen of death” is a nightmare for Windows users. It indicates a serious issue with the operating system at both the hardware and software levels and causes computers to stop working to avoid major issues.
This can led to severe consequences when this occurs on Microsoft Azure servers hosting databases for hospitals, companies, and emergency services. On Friday, the issue caused chaos in several hospitals in the U.S., rendering their document and file management systems inoperative.
Bank servers have also experienced unexpected shutdowns caused by the CrowdStrike security service. Following an app update, the servers began to display the blue screen of death, rendering files and documents inaccessible and disrupting normal operations.
This widespread server downtime has even affected Microsoft 365 services, the company’s cloud-based suite of business apps. The computer failures temporarily hindered access to stored data, impacting the daily operations of small and medium-sized enterprises reliant on these Microsoft tools.
Common Denominator: The Cloud
When searching for a common underlying cause for the incident, all the elements point to the cloud, which has, in one way or another, become the foundation of the entire current business infrastructure.
The incident has impacted services hosted on the Microsoft Azure platform, which increased its market share to 24% by 2024. This means that, to a greater or lesser extent, the incident has affected 24% of companies and services globally that rely on this platform.
At the same time, the incident has revealed how a simple failure to update the lines of code of a security program–which, ironically enough, is responsible for protecting the cloud–can disrupt half of the world’s business operations. It’s a digital version of the butterfly effect in the chaos theory, which states that a small change in one part of a system can have a large, non-linear impact elsewhere.
Globalization and Flexibility
The cloud has been and will continue to be the foundation that allows a company in the U.S. to establish branches all over the world, offers us the ability to stream shows, and enables remote work from home.
Companies have transitioned their files and tools from local servers to large cloud infrastructures, which now allow institutions like hospitals to access patient records and banks to access customer transactions.
On Friday, this data remained inaccessible in some U.S. hospitals due to the blue screen of death caused by the CrowdStrike bug on the Azure server where it was hosted. This issue may affect Amazon or Google servers in the future, leading to similar consequences.
The technological outage has also affected the online payment systems of retailers and fast food chains that use cloud servers for product purchases and deliveries.
Meanwhile, many companies worldwide of all sizes and sectors have sent their employees home today due to the inability to access online work tools and documents, something that has impacted both in-person and remote workers.
This article was written by Rubén Andrés and originally published in Spanish on Xataka.
Image | Irwan via Unsplash
See all comments on https://www.xatakaon.com
SEE 0 Comment