news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Microsoft outage affects 8.5 million Windows devices

Shen Min

Microsoft Corporation of the United States said on the 20th that according to current estimates, the large-scale outage caused by the security software upgrade of CrowdStrike has affected approximately 8.5 million devices worldwide that have Microsoft Windows operating systems installed, which is equivalent to less than 1% of the total number of devices currently installed with the Windows system.

Although the program error has been corrected, its impact is so widespread that it will take some time for the disrupted order in various industries to return to normal. Cybersecurity agencies remind the public and businesses to be careful of criminals taking advantage of the opportunity to cheat and steal data.

【Order gradually restored】

Microsoft cybersecurity chief David Weston said in a blog post that while the affected machines "are a small percentage, the wide-ranging economic and social impact reflects the widespread use of crowd-attack software in companies that run many critical services."

Microsoft said that Crowdstrike has helped to launch a solution to speed up the repair process Microsoft is making using its Azure cloud service platform. Microsoft will also work with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform to share the information it learns about the progress of the repair.

Starting at 19:00 GMT on the 18th (03:00 Beijing time on the 19th), computers running Microsoft Windows systems in many parts of the world crashed and displayed "blue screens" due to a security software update from the American computer security technology company "Crowdstrike", affecting multiple industries such as aviation, medical, media, finance, retail, and logistics. "Crowdstrike" said the accident was caused by a "code error" in the upgrade of its security software for Microsoft Windows systems. As of the afternoon of the 19th, the error has been corrected, but because too many companies are involved, it will take some time for all the "blue screen" computers to return to normal.

The outage caused thousands of flights to be canceled and tens of thousands of flights to be delayed worldwide, leaving a large number of passengers stranded at airports. As of the 20th, flight operations in the affected areas have gradually resumed.

Data from a U.S. flight tracking website showed that as of mid-afternoon Eastern Time on the 20th, more than 2,000 flights had been canceled worldwide that day, a significant decrease from the more than 5,100 flights canceled on the 19th.

According to the Associated Press, of the flights canceled on the 20th, about 1,600 were in the United States. Delta Air Lines was one of the airlines most affected by the outage, with more than 800 flights canceled that day, accounting for a quarter of the planned flights, and this number does not include regional flights operated by Delta subsidiaries. United Airlines canceled nearly 400 flights.

According to data from aviation data analysis agency Rise, the flight cancellation rate of US airlines on the 20th was about 3.5%, only lower than that of their Australian counterparts. The flight cancellation rate in the UK, France and Brazil was about 1%, and the cancellation rate in Canada, Italy and India was about 2%.

European routes and airport operations are slowly returning to normal. Lufthansa and its European airlines have canceled dozens of flights, but basic services have been restored. The German Federal Information Security Agency said on the afternoon of the 20th that the situation in most areas of Germany affected by the outage is stabilizing, but a large number of companies are still affected by the aftermath of the outage.

【Beware of "taking advantage of the fire"】

Cybersecurity agencies in various countries and executives of "CrowdStrike" have issued a warning to the global public and businesses: criminals have impersonated "CrowdStrike" employees or technical experts from other organizations, and under the guise of providing computer system repair services to affected individuals or businesses, they are trying to steal data for profit. Everyone needs to remain vigilant.

The UK National Cyber ​​Security Centre said it had noticed an increase in attempts to steal data by taking advantage of the outage. Ciaran Martin, former chief executive of the centre and now a professor at Oxford University, said he was not surprised that an incident had caused a serious global data disruption, but was "a little surprised that it was caused by a software upgrade from a very reputable cybersecurity company." "Crowdstrike will face very sharp questions. How did this software upgrade pass the quality control process? Obviously the testing mechanism failed, one way or another."

Martin said it is difficult for the UK and EU member governments to take measures to prevent such system collapses, "because we already rely on a very American version of technology, and the power to take any (preventive) measures is not in the hands of many European countries." (End) (Xinhua News Agency Special Report)