CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz has announced that nearly all systems affected by a faulty update that caused a global IT outage are back online. The update disabled approximately 8.5 million machines, with only around 250,000 devices remaining offline as of July 25th.
In a post on LinkedIn, Kurtz expressed his gratitude for the “tireless efforts” of customers and staff in resolving the issue, while also apologizing for the incident. He assured stakeholders that the company is committed to restoring every impacted system, despite the ongoing work still needed to fix the remaining devices.
The process of bringing systems back online has been time-consuming, with solutions shared by CrowdStrike and Microsoft requiring physical access to devices for restarts and file deletions. Microsoft has since released a tool to expedite the recovery process, and Kurtz noted that the development of automated recovery tools has improved efforts.
While CrowdStrike has provided more details on the incident and implemented measures to prevent a recurrence, the company has faced criticism for its response. Offering $10 UberEats vouchers to staff and partners as a token of thanks was met with backlash, with some feeling that the gesture fell short of addressing the disruption caused by the outage.
The financial impact of the IT outage has been significant, with the top 500 US companies (excluding Microsoft) reportedly experiencing $5.4 billion in financial losses, according to insurance firm Parametrix. As CrowdStrike continues its efforts to fully restore all systems and prevent future incidents, stakeholders will be closely monitoring the company’s response and recovery efforts.
