The blue screen of death errors on computer screens are viewed due to the global communications outage caused by CrowdStrike, which provides cyber security services to US technology company Microsoft, on July 19, 2024 in Ankara, Turkey.
Harun Ozalp | Anadolu | Getty Images
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said that over 97% of Windows sensors are back online after an update from the cybersecurity firm caused one of the world’s biggest IT outages.
“To our customers still affected, please know we will not rest until we achieve full recovery,” Kurtz said in a LinkedIn post on Thursday.
Last week, CrowdStrike issued a routine update to its users around the world — which mainly comprise large businesses — that had a bug which caused Microsoft’s Windows operating system to crash.
Many users woke up on Friday to a blue screen error on Windows. The IT outage sparked chaos around the world, with flights being cancelled, businesses closing early and even medical staff scrambling to keep operations running.
CrowdStrike rolled back the update to fix the issue.
The company’s share price has been hammered since the incident, as CEO Kurtz looks to contain the reputational fallout.
“I am deeply sorry for the disruption this outage has caused and personally apologize to everyone impacted. While I can’t promise perfection, I can promise a response that is focused, effective, and with a sense of urgency,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
A TechCrunch article titled “CrowdStrike offers a $10 apology gift card to say sorry for outage” reported that the company was “offering its partners a $10 Uber Eats gift card as an apology.”
CrowdStrike told CNBC in response to a request for comment on the article, “That claim is false. CrowdStrike did not send gift cards to customers or clients. We did send these to our teammates and partners who have been helping customers through this situation. Uber flagged it as fraud because of high usage rates.”
TechCrunch previously reported that some people were having trouble using the gift card.
Asked by CNBC on the intention behind the gift cards, a CrowdStrike spokesperson said, “This was intended by an internal team as a token of appreciation to our external partners who were working tirelessly with our customers. Any other characterization is incorrect.”
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect CrowdStrike’s position regarding the TechCrunch report on Uber gift cards.