A Review of the Great CrowdStrike Outage of 2024

(Note: This talk will be given under duress, due to the lack of an alternate speaker signup.)

Presented by Ari Trachtenberg.

Abstract

In July of 2024, a faulty update to a CrowdStrike security sensor ended up crashing some 8 million Windows machines into a Blue Screen of Death, which persisted on reboot. This caused massive infrastructural failures throughout the world, including:

• Delays and cancellations of more than 10,000 flights around the world (including those for Delta, United,

and American Airlines).

• Breakdown of multiple payment platforms (including some ATMs).
• Outages of critical hospital systems, such as those related to Electronic Health Records and medical imaging.
• Broadcast outlets (like Sky News) being taken off the air.

The nature of the outage was particularly severe because of the need to manually patch each affected system. This talk will cover the outage, its root causes, ethical considerations, and lessons learned.

References

• [[https://www.crowdstrike.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Channel-File-291-Incident-Root-Cause-Analysis-08.06.2024.pdf?Offer=ab_ss_reeng_plt_var1]External Technical Root Cause Analysis — Channel File 291]]
• [https://www.messageware.com/what-caused-the-crowdstrike-outage-a-detailed-breakdown/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

][What Caused the Crowdstrike Outage: A Detailed Breakdown]]