Several companies worldwide are experiencing IT issues on Friday, allegedly due to a faulty update of the security program CrowdStrike. According to IT security expert Peter Kruse, CrowdStrike is widely used among large companies, including airports, banks, media, and authorities. The update has caused system failures on computers running certain versions of Microsoft operating systems. Kruse emphasizes that the issues primarily affect large companies and not private users. He points out that when such a widespread security solution is updated with errors, it can lead to massive outages through a domino effect, which is exactly what we are seeing now.
On the home front, the Danish State Railways (DSB) and the Capital Region Emergency Services have also experienced problems. DSB’s website has been affected, and the Capital Region Emergency Services have had challenges receiving automatic fire alarms. Peter Kruse believes that the faulty update could have serious consequences for CrowdStrike. The trust between the producer and customers could be significantly damaged. Although the possibility of deliberate sabotage cannot be ruled out, Kruse leans towards it being an error on CrowdStrike’s part, where the update was not thoroughly tested before deployment.
Microsoft has stated that they are working to resolve the issues and notes that there are ongoing improvements. Here in Denmark, Region of Southern Denmark, Region of Northern Denmark, and Central Denmark Region report stable operations, and the National Police have reported that their systems are not affected by the issues.