If your Windows computer is currently experiencing a blue screen of death, rest assured that you are not alone. Windows outages have been reported around the world, apparently caused by CrowdStrike issues.
“CrowdStrike is aware of reports of Windows host crashes related to the Falcon Sensor,” the cybersecurity company wrote in an alert confirming the outage at 1:30 a.m. ET on Friday. CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor is a A software designed to protect computer systems from cyberattacks.
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“Symptoms include encountering a bugcheck\blue screen error related to the Falcon sensor,” CrowdStrike’s alert continued. “Our engineering team is actively working to resolve this issue without opening a support ticket.”
Although the CrowdStrike problem is a specific cause of Windows crashes, the problem appears to have far-reaching implications. Considering that Windows is a very popular operating system and CrowdStrike is a very popular cybersecurity company, it seems that many companies and services are also experiencing disruptions due to computer outages.
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Power outages were reported in several countries around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan and the United Kingdom. As of this writing, crowdsourced outage monitor DownDetector shows a spike in issues for a number of platforms and businesses in the US as well, including Amazon Web Services, Instagram, eBay, Visa, ADT and PlentyOfFish. Several U.S. airlines, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, were grounded due to communications issues that also appeared to be the result of the outage.
Image source: Mashable Screenshot: DownDetector
Supermarkets, banks, airlines, telcos and TV broadcasters have all been affected, with Australian shoppers reportedly unable to pay for groceries due to electronic payment systems being down.
How to fix CloudStrike Windows BSOD issues
Fortunately, CloudStrike announced at 2:30 a.m. ET that it had identified the update causing the problem and was rolling it back. The company also offers workarounds for those who encounter the problem:
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“Boot Windows into Safe Mode or Windows Recovery Environment
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“Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory
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“Find the file matching “C-0000029*.sys” and delete it.
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“Host starts normally.”
Of course, having to do this for every computer in multiple companies around the world can still take some time.
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