CrowdStrike Microsoft Global Outage (2024)

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About

CrowdStrike Microsoft Global Outage refers to a global Microsoft computer system outage in mid-July 2024 that resulted from a CrowdStrike update. CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity software used by numerous Fortune 500 companies including banks, airlines and healthcare providers, and its recent update interacted with Windows systems in a way that made them get stuck in a reboot loop. The resulting global Windows outage saw people making memes and jokes about being affected or unaffected by the outage, with jokes about having to go to work because Windows Teams and Outlook weren't affected making the rounds as well. Vincent Flibustier's 'First Day at CrowdStrike' Tweet was one example in which the Twitter / X user faked being fired by CrowdStrike.

Background

In the early hours of July 19th, 2024, various Windows users around the globe began to report technical issues after updating their cybersecurity software, CrowdStrike. The bug caused Windows systems to get stuck in an endless reboot cycle, which appears on the screen as a deep blue loading page (also known as the "Blue Screen Of Death" or "BSOD").

One of the earliest reports on the Windows system outage came from Microsoft Regional Director and X^[1] / Twitter user @TroyHunt after midnight early on July 19th. He created a thread of various countries and agencies reporting issues with their systems (seen below), which included reports from India and Japan, as well as media corporations like SkyNews and airports.

Developments

Early on July 19th, 2024, CrowdStrike CEO @George_Kurtz posted to his X^[3] account saying that the outage was a result of a "defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts," and assuring users that a fix had been deployed. The post gathered over 14,000 likes in a day (seen below).

The CEO went on to apologize to all his users, further clarifying the bug that caused the outage. Sky News, one of the media companies that experienced a blackout due to the outage, uploaded the video to its YouTube^[8] channel, gathering over 38,000 views in a day (seen below).

Deleting "C-00000291*.sys" As A Possible Fix

Some X users posted about how the issue could be fixed by deleting the file causing the bug. X^[9] user @brody_n77 made a post on July 19th, 2024, saying that deleting the "C-00000291*.sys" in the Windows CrowdStrike folder would resolve the issue, while another X^[10] user @russelljkaplan lamented about how his airline desk clerk would not let him try the fix on their computer (seen below).

Vincent Flibustier "First Day at CrowdStrike" Tweet

Vincent Flibustier 'First Day at CrowdStrike' Tweet refers to a Twitter / X post reading, "First day at Crowdstrike, pushed a little update and taking the afternoon off ✌️" posted by user Vincent Flibustier (@vinceflibustier) who alleged to be a former CrowdStrike employee who was fired for implementing the update that caused the Microsoft outage. Flibustier's pictured in a blue hoodie, giving the camera a peace sign and a duck face, seemingly located at the CrowdStrike headquarters. Flibustier's tweet was satire as he's never been employed by CrowdStrike. Flibustier instead runs the parody news site Nordpresse. Regardless, the post amassed millions of views after its upload, generating memes and interest.

Online Reactions

Many internet users posted about how the outage affected them or their work on July 19th, 2024, with X^[4] user @akothari posting an image of a handwritten boarding pass he was handed in India, gathering over 47,000 likes in a day (seen below, left). Meanwhile, X^[5] user @cb_doge posted an image of the MSG Sphere with the Microsoft loading screen on it, gathering over 80,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).