Last Friday’s global IT outage left many wondering about its cause and implications. To shed light on the situation, cybersecurity expert Donovan Pillay joined Johanne on Table Talk to explain what happened, how it affected us, and whether we should worry.

What Caused the Outage?

Donovan began by explaining the root cause of the outage. CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company specialising in cyberattack prevention, caused the problem. An update from CrowdStrike disrupted various Microsoft machines worldwide. Donovan clarified, “If your computer is currently behaving normally, you don’t have anything to worry about. This will not affect you.” For those affected, remedies are available to restore functionality.

The Financial Impact

The global economy took a hit from this event, with losses estimated around $1 billion USD. Donovan expressed surprise at the figure, expecting it to be higher. The issue stemmed from two main players: CrowdStrike and Microsoft. Donovan described it as “two bad kids messing around on the playground.” CrowdStrike’s faulty update broke Microsoft machines, which couldn’t recover on their own. Although fixes and patches are available, some may require technical expertise to implement.

Can It Happen Again?

Addressing whether the worst is over, Donovan assured us that the event did not appear malicious. It resulted from “bad lines of code that had no quality assurance.” The faulty update was released on Friday, July 19th, around midday, and CrowdStrike repaired it by 1:30 PM. However, the damage was done within that one-and-a-half-hour window. A common joke among IT professionals is never to release an update on a Friday, yet CrowdStrike did, causing global chaos.

Moving Forward

For now, the worst seems to be over. Donovan stated, “In our line of work, it’s not just over. It’s just what’s next.” Remedial actions are needed to get systems back online. Microsoft has released a recovery tool for affected users, which can be found by searching for “Microsoft CrowdStrike recovery tool.” Donovan recommended professional assistance, especially if tools like BitLocker are enabled, to avoid data loss.

Listen to the full conversation.