Global Businesses Crippled by IT Outages; CrowdStrike Issues Fix

Widespread IT outages on Friday affected multiple sectors. CrowdStrike linked the issue to a software update and deployed a fix. The company assures that it wasn't a cyberattack. CERT-In provided mitigation steps for affected Windows systems.

In a dramatic turn of events on Friday, a global IT outage brought businesses across various sectors to a standstill, with many reporting the notorious 'Windows blue screen of death.' Security firm CrowdStrike has traced the problem to a defective software update and confirmed that a fix has been applied.

'CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed,' CrowdStrike President and CEO George Kurtz stated.

The outage affected numerous industries including airlines, banks, food chains, and news organizations, causing massive disruptions. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued an advisory for affected Windows users, detailing step-by-step instructions to mitigate the issue. Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to implement mitigation actions to improve service availability.

(With inputs from agencies.)