Essentially, the mechanism to send and install updates to fix bugs and keep computers from crashing had a bug that caused the computers to crash. Ironic, isn't it?
In more detail, here's what happened:
Microsoft released a routine update to fix some bugs in Windows. Larger companies and organizations use a company called Crowdstrike to help send the update to all their computers. The code that Crowdstrike uses to install the update on the computers had a bug, and instead of installing the update, the computers crashed.
It's a bit like you're at the gas station to get gas, and the gas pump causes a problem that makes your car no longer start. At first, you think it's the gas, but it turns out it was the gas pump.
It has been nearly a week. Why is it still a problem? Because the problem has to be fixed manually on each computer. For some companies, that could be tens of thousands of computers. While the most critical ones have probably been fixed over the weekend, some are still being remedied.
The bigger picture:
Microsoft Windows is on about 800 million computers worldwide (as of 2019). This outage affected about 8.5 million computers. That's only about 1% of all Windows computers - a minimal amount. The outage did not affect most personal computers, and not all organizations use Crowdstrike to manage Windows updates. However, because the companies that were affected served so many people around the world, it was deeply felt all over.
What are your thoughts on this? Were you affected by the outage? How do feel about incidents like this? Put your thoughts in the comments below.
People always find a way to exploit things when something happens. When the CrowdStrke incident occurred last week, there were people who set up fake CrowdStrike websites and fake domains to trick people into revealing information.
In plain English - People were sent emails from those posing to be from CrowdStrike. With these emails, the posers can gain access to bank accounts, health care accounts and other avenue that has sensitive data.