More Than 97% Of Microsoft Windows Sensors Are Operational After Global Outage, Says CrowdStrike CEO

By admin On يوليو 26, 2024

By
Sana Tahir
Forbes Middle East Staff
Jul 26, 2024, 12:42

More Than 97% Of Microsoft Windows Sensors Are Operational After Global Outage, Says CrowdStrike CEO
CrowdStrike CEO and billionaire George Kurtz. Image by CrowdStrike / website
More than 97% of Microsoft Windows sensors are operational again following a global outage caused by an issue with a recent CrowdStrike software update, according to the cybersecurity firm’s CEO George Kurtz.

Sensors back online
“I want to share that over 97% of Windows sensors are back online as of July 25. This progress is thanks to the tireless efforts of our customers, partners, and the dedication of our team at CrowdStrike,” Kurtz said in a LinkedIn post.

“However, we understand our work is not yet complete, and we remain committed to restoring every impacted system,” he added.

The global outage occurred on July 19 at 04:09 UTC, following CrowdStrike’s release of a content configuration update for the Windows sensor known as the company Falcon platform sensor.

The Falcon sensor platform is a security agent installed on devices such as laptops and desktops as a safeguard against cyber threats.

A fault within the advanced Falcon platform triggered the global outage wherein computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system crashed, displaying the dreaded blue screen of death.

Around 8.5 million Windows devices had been impacted by the worldwide outage, which caused disruptions in flight schedules, and interruptions in broadcasts, and robbed customers of their access to essential services like healthcare and banking, reported Reuters last Friday, citing a statement from Microsoft.

While issuing an apology to customers, CrowdStrike chief Kurtz assured that a full recovery of all sensors would be made and promised a “focused, effective” response motivated by “a sense of urgency.”

“Our recovery efforts have been enhanced thanks to the development of automatic recovery techniques and by mobilizing all our resources to support our customers,” said Kurtz.

Shares plunge
CrowdStrike shares crashed as much as 15.4% to its lowest share price of $290.1, following the global outage of its Windows sensors on July 19, 2024.

Its shares have continued to fall since then. However, its shares edged up 1.4% to $257.7 in after-hours trading on Thursday.

Microsoft shares have fallen nearly 5% over the past week. They were trading at $421.2 with a slight gain of 0.7% in after-hours trading on Thursday.

Forbes ranking
CrowdStrike ranks 1,512th on the 2024 Forbes Global 2000 list with its assets worth about $6.7 billion as of May 17, 2024.

Kurtz ranks 1,327th on Forbes The World’s Real-Time Billionaires list with a net worth of $2.5 billion as of July 26, 2024.

CybersecurityWindowsMicrosoftCrowdStrike
By
Sana Tahir
Forbes Middle East Staff
Sana Tahir is a news writer at Forbes Middle East. Apart from daily business news, she enjoys writing about technology, lifestyle, internet sub-cultures, and issues of social justice.