19 July saw an unprecedented global IT outage, with over 8 million digital systems effected across every facet of our societies. Governmental services, travel companies and the finance sector are just some of the industries impacted by severe technical issues, with computer monitors across the globe displaying the now infamous blue screen of death. The incident, caused by a faulty update issued by American cybersecurity company, CrowdStrike, effected computers running Microsoft Windows in every corner of the world in an event that is unparalleled in the history of digital technology. One key industry that saw major disruption to their business operations was that of gambling, with many key gaming operators reporting technical problems and interruptions to their services.
Let’s take a closer look at the events that unfolded on 19 July, what does it mean for the companies involved and importantly what are the future implications of this incident on emerging digital industries?
Who are CrowdStrike?
Founded in 2011 by George Kurtz, Dmitri Alperovitch and Gregg Marston, the company has sought to redefine cyber security systems using their advanced cloud-native platform, offering clients endpoint security, threat intelligence as well as cyberattack response services. Their expertise in the security field was quickly identified with many of the world’s largest companies including Google, Amazon and Microsoft soon counting themselves as customers. Before the events that unfolded in July, the company had reached a market cap of over $140 billion dollars with a market share of 23.67% and over 24,000 customers; truly highlighting the global standing of CrowdStrike in the cybersecurity sector.
Timeline of Events on 19 July
04:09 UTC: CrowdStrike release a configuration update for its Falcon sensor software for Windows systems distributing across the world. However, due to an error in the Channel File 291 modification, the update is faulty and causes all PCs and servers utilizing the Microsoft Azure platform to begin rebooting and crashing.
05:27 UTC: The issue is identified by CrowdStrike, and the update is reverted. For many systems it is already too late. Organizations everywhere continue to experience technical difficulties.
06:48 UTC: Google Compute Engine, the digital infrastructure behind the Google Platform reports similar issues. Within the hour, Google points the finger at CrowdStrike regarding the issues.
09:45 UTC: CrowdStrike CEO, George Kurtz, states that the issue is not the fault of a cyber-attack and is in fact the result of a corrupted file update by the company. He then confirms that a fix has already been developed and deployed to resolve the issue.
Global Ramifications
In little over five hours, the IT issues had been identified and a plan of action to remedy the situation had been initiated. However, enough time had elapsed to significantly impact a myriad of business operations across the globe:
Air Travel
Multiple airline companies using the Azure platform experienced severe difficulties almost immediately after the faulty update with check in procedures massively effected. Many automated processes such as self-check in and booking retrieval features carried out on airline websites became unavailable while in some circumstances such as at Edinburgh Airport, departure boards froze causing widespread panic and confusion in the terminal. Airlines including Quantas in Australia, LuftHansa in Germany and Turkish Airlines in Turkey all experienced difficulties causing the cancellation of several flights. However, major US airline Delta was by far the hardest hit. In what has been described as an operational meltdown, over 1200 flights were cancelled on 19 July, with a further 7000 flights cancelled in the following days as the company continued to grapple with overwhelming technical issues.
Gaming Industry
The gaming industry also experienced serious issues across the board with the operations of established land-based venues, online bookmakers and online casino platforms all significantly affected. Hannah Cutajar is a gaming specialist across several markets and witnessed some disruption of even the best online casino apps in Canada. In unprecedented scenes, many casino apps refused access to many account holders. Furthermore, many players were unable to access their online portals at major bookmakers Ladbrokes, Coral and SportsBet while there were several reports of users being unable to removed funds from their accounts. A statement from SportsBet read, “Like many organizations, global 3rd party technical issues are disrupting some of our betting services, including customer services, we are working to resolve this as soon as possible.” By the end of the day, most of the issues faced by companies had been resolved with normal operations back in action. However, the confusion and frustration experienced by many players will surely linger for a while longer.
Governmental Services
North America in particular reported disruptions to many key governmental services with many federal agencies including NASA, the Department of Justice and the Department of National Security experiencing technical difficulties. Furthermore, a city emergency was declared in Portland by city Mayor Ted Wheeler with many of the city’s essential services using the Azure platform and thus severely affected. In alarming scenes there were also outages in 911 services across the country, with New Hampshire momentarily experiencing a complete shutdown of its call centers. Fortunately, most call centers were able to switch to a secondary backup system to allow these vital services to continue to operate effectively.
The rapid and universal impact of the IT outage has raised significant questions regarding our reliance on cloud-based systems, shining a light on the fragility of our ever-expanding digital world. As online industries such as iGaming continue to develop and grow, the events of 19 July highlight the need for decentralization in the IT sector to ensure that one single error in a software update does not cause such disruption to global operations again. With over 70% of the world’s computers using Windows, many have raised important issues regarding the problems surrounding such a monopolized industry, particularly considering our increasing reliance on digital environments. The financial cost of the crash has been estimated at around $10 billion. While this appears a high price to pay, it has revealed some key problems which if addressed could save significantly more in the years to come.