A software update wreaked havoc on computer systems globally on Friday. In Israel, Public hospitals across the country, including Sheba, Rambam, and Laniado, grappled with a major computer malfunction. Around the world flights were grounded and some broadcasters were forced off the air as Banking and healthcare systems lost their digital capabilities. Cyber security experts said days would be needed to recover.
The proplem appears to have been triggered by an update to a product offered by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, affecting customers using Microsoft's Windows Operating System. Microsoft said later on Friday the issue had been fixed.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on social media platform X that the company was "actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts" and that a fix was being deployed. "This is not a security incident or cyberattack," Kurtz said in the post.
The company which is based in Austin, Texas employs 8,500 people and supplies Microsoft as well as many major global firms with a variety of technical services. In the past, CrowdStrike assisted in responding to major cyber attacks like the one against Sony in 2014 and had helped the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute five Chinese military hackers for spying on American corporations.
Its Falcon component which was likely the cause of the malfunction was first launched by CrowdStrike in 2013. It provides end-to-end protection and intelligence on cyber threats.
Yoram Hacohen, chairman of Israel's Internet Association said the problem was rare and its origin could not yet be definitively confirmed. "This could have been an internal software update problem or a malicious act by someone outside the company."
Amiram Shahar founder and CEO of Upwind, an Israeli cyber firm said the impact was in a scope never before seen "because the falcon immediately shuts down the system of millions of companies around the world and harms their servers as well as personal computers."
While there were reports of companies gradually restoring their services, analysts weighed the potential of what one called the biggest-ever outage in the industry and the broader economy.
"IT security tools are all designed to ensure that companies can continue to operate in the worst-case scenario of a data breach, so to be the root cause of a global IT outage is an unmitigated disaster," said Ajay Unni, CEO of StickmanCyber, one of Australia's largest cybersecurity services companies.
The problem appears to have been triggered by an update to a product offered by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, affecting customers using Microsoft's Windows Operating System. Microsoft said later on Friday the issue had been fixed.