By: Lauren Wu

On July 19, an IT outage caused problems worldwide. It was discovered that it was the software of the cybersecurity company, CrowdStrike, that caused the outage leading to issues with news broadcasts, transportation, and computer systems.

CrowdStrike is a computer security company in Austin, Texas founded in 2011 by George Kurtz, who is also the CEO. The company helps in next-generation endpoint protection, threat intelligence and response services. [Here connect CrowdStrike to Microsoft.]

For part of July 19, 2024, the news channels CBBC and Sky News came off air, not able to broadcast for part of the morning. Instead, viewers who tuned in to CBBC were given the option of watching individual CBBC shows on iPlayer. [You need a transition here to connect the two parts, for example: Transport systems were also affected.] Because transportation systems use online systems to schedule the arrivals and departures of planes, many flights around the world were canceled. Over 1,500 flights were affected worldwide, including 23 leaving the U.K. and 25 arriving flights.

Furthermore, all four of Govia Thameslink Railway’s services (Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern), the largest train operating company in the U.K., were not able to access driver diagrams at certain points. The Railway posted on social media, “We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks.”

Because the computers would take a bit of time to work normally again, George Kurtz, the CEO of the company said, “CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”

Sources:
Link- https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/cjr4lv9x54go Link- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/what-we-know-about-the-massive-tech-outage-causing-worldwide-disruptions