CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.
What Happened: The outage was caused by a faulty software update from the cybersecurity firm, which led to a global system crash on Microsoft Corp.'s
Kurtz, however, has announced that the recovery process has been significantly improved, thanks to the development of automatic recovery techniques and the mobilization of all resources to support affected customers.
"Our recovery efforts have been enhanced thanks to the development of automatic recovery techniques and by mobilizing all our resources to support our customers," Kurtz said in a post on LinkedIn.
Why It Matters: The outage, which began on Jul. 19, was attributed to a flawed security update from CrowdStrike's Falcon platform. The issue originated from the Rapid Response Content, a dynamic protection mechanism, which inadvertently caused a system crash due to an undetected error in the update.
CrowdStrike has since reverted the defective update and emphasized that Mac and Linux hosts remained unaffected.
In response to the disruption, CrowdStrike offered a $10 Uber Eats gift card to its partners as an apology. However, some users reported issues redeeming the vouchers, which were flagged as fraud due to high usage rates.
Interestingly, less than two months ago, Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC's "Mad Money," had praised CrowdStrike, expressing confidence in the company's stability. However, the recent events have shown the unpredictability of the stock market, even for seasoned experts.
The faulty update not only disrupted everyday operations but also significantly impacted critical infrastructure globally, including major airlines, financial institutions, and emergency services. U.S. airlines experienced groundings and over 1,500 flight cancellations. Similar issues occurred in Germany and Spain.
Price Action: CrowdStrike's stock closed at $254.15 on Thursday, down 1.55% for the day. In after-hours trading, the stock increased 0.30%. Year to date, the stock has risen by 2.94%, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
