A recent update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused a significant IT outage on Friday morning, affecting businesses both locally and globally.

CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software, utilized by numerous Fortune 500 companies, including prominent global banks, healthcare, and energy firms, is designed to detect and block hacking threats. Similar to other cybersecurity products, this software needs extensive access to a computer’s operating system to perform thorough threat scans.

In this instance, computers running Microsoft Windows are crashing due to a faulty interaction between a recent software code update from CrowdStrike and the Windows system.

“CrowdStrike is working diligently with customers affected by a defect in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux systems remain unaffected,” stated CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz on X.

“This is not a security breach or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated, and resolved.”

Kurtz advised customers to check the support portal for the latest information and to communicate with their CrowdStrike representatives through official channels.

“The update contained a software bug that caused an issue with the Microsoft operating system. We are now working with each customer to restore their systems,” Kurtz stated during a morning interview with NBC.

Kurtz explained that the update was a standard procedure intended to mitigate security risks, but an investigation will be conducted to determine what went wrong.

The confirmation followed widespread panic that the crash was due to a massive cyber attack. CrowdStrike and national officials have recently confirmed that issues were merely a mass outage and not a national or global cyber attack.

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website,” said a representative of CrowdStrike.

Locally, the outage has affected local businesses and transportation. National trends with flight delays and issues with DoD contractors seem to be what most companies and individuals are facing her in Huntsville.

“Our three major airlines, American, Delta, and United, experienced issues this morning due to the IT outage. It is, since then, slowly but surely coming back and so airlines are flying out now. Passengers are still advised to expect delays…it’s going to cause delays throughout the day,” a spokesperson on behalf of the Huntsville International Airport told the Business Journal.

In terms of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Aerospace industry, various businesses throughout town are experienced the outage.

“A few customers of PhishFirewall were impacted, and I would assume that most Department of Defense contractors are down,” said Crystal Fontaine of PhishFirewall.

Another source confirmed this in another interview, stating that the majority of businesses across town were affected locally and nationally.

“There are a few companies that are almost certainly being hit by this. A quick search of companies using CrowdStrike include Boeing, Encompass Health Systems, Lockheed Martin, Trust, General Dynamics, Iron Mountain Solutions, and many more.”

According to CrowdStrike, the issue has been resolved, although delays continue.

CrowdStrike’s stock fell by over 11% on Friday morning, while Microsoft’s shares remained relatively stable.

As a reminder, the Huntsville Business Journal encourages our readers to pursue the full story prior to sharing opinions online. Again, it has been confirmed that the outages are not due to a cyber attack, but rather an IT outage. If your business has anything to add to the CrowdStrike outages, please contact editor@huntsvillebusinessjournal.com.