“Falcon Sensor” – the product name of the IT security service of the Californian company Crowdstrike promises the sharpness of a hawk's eye for threat prevention. The security monitoring solution is intended to detect and prevent threats at an early stage.
“Falcon Sensor” is a system that monitors activities in real time and is designed to block attacks. Security expert Jürgen Schmidt from Heise Security describes it as “a type of next-generation antivirus program” that is used primarily by large companies. “End customers do not generally use such systems. Nevertheless, they are of course affected by the problems that arise for service providers, companies and authorities as a result of their use.”
Just how widespread Crowdstrike's security solution is worldwide was evident on Friday morning. For many Crowdstrike customers, nothing was working anymore because their computers only displayed the infamous “Blue Screen of Death” error message and would no longer boot up. Many users who are not direct Crowdstrike customers but use the Microsoft 365 service, for example, were also affected.
The Crowdstrike problem was not a cyberattack
Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz dispelled fears on X that his company had itself fallen victim to a cyberattack: “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The problem has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.” Crowdstrike is actively working with customers affected by a defect that was found in a single update for Windows computers. Mac and Linux computers were not affected.
The company boss will have to face many critical questions in the coming days. The automatic deployment of a faulty update that causes thousands of computers worldwide to crash could indicate deficiencies in quality assurance. Crowdstrike shareholders also want to hear conclusive answers. Following the worldwide computer problems, the company's shares came under pressure. The stock fell by around 15 percent on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Friday morning compared to the previous day.
