The global software issue affecting the entire world and what happened behind the scenes
The global IT software issue is being linked to an update sent by a cybersecurity provider called CrowdStrike. So, what happened during this process, and how can one stay safe? Sinan Kılıç, Deputy General Manager of VBT Yazılım AŞ, evaluates the situation for 12punto.
12punto
Sinan KILIÇ- Deputy General Manager of VBT Yazılım AŞ
Sinan Kılıç
On Friday, July 19, a worldwide computer system outage occurred. Many of us heard about the issue through flight, order, and other cancellations by major companies. With the trouble that occurred, the name of a company called CrowdStrike came to the forefront. This company is a cybersecurity firm, and it is a company that many corporate firms around the world rely on to keep themselves safe against cyberattacks.
WHAT HAPPENED?
CrowdStrike offers a product called “Falcon” to its customers for cybersecurity. In a statement on its website, the company states that the issue stemmed from an update made to Falcon. On Friday, July 19, at 04:09 UTC (we can say 07:09 Turkish time), an update was released for Windows servers using the Falcon product. The company's own claim is that they resolved the issue in less than 1.5 hours, at 05:27. However, it cannot be said that the full effects of the problem were limited to this time interval.
HOW DID THE PROBLEM AFFECT US?
Computer operating systems that received the aforementioned update experienced issues with the computer showing a blue screen. Therefore, CrowdStrike fixing the issue did not completely eliminate the problem. Operations had to be carried out for all devices exposed to this situation to access updates through different methods and have them installed on the computers. Consequently, the duration of the problem's impact far exceeded the stated time.
HOW CAN ONE BE SAFE?
In fact, the situation that occurred is a familiar one in the software and security world. Experts point out the importance of first using new versions of any software on a limited number of computers and users before rolling them out to the general public. In this way, the basic benefits of the software and its effects on the system as a whole can be seen and evaluated. Of course, in a system where global players set their own rules and push updates according to their own decisions, how this can be ensured brings new question marks with it.