July 19, 2024 • 4 mins
Microsoft users this morning reported widespread outages as airlines, airports, banks and media companies are now coming back on-line. So what happened? ABC News Tech reporter Mike Dobuski joined Tony Cruise to explain.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Lights out, lights out, andmore man especially in Europe and Australia and
other nations with the global technology outage. Let's join Mike Debuski, ABC News
Tech Reporter Extraordinaire from New York II. Mike, is this a cyber attack?
No, that's the first thing tosay. The CEO of CrowdStrike,
(00:23):
which is the cybersecurity firm that sentout an update overnight that seems to have
knocked a lot of Windows computers offline, he has come out and he said,
this is just a faulty update.There's no reason to believe that this
was cyber terrorism or anything like that. This is a faulty bit of software
that we sent out to our customers, specifically our Windows customers, and it
(00:45):
really has had big impacts. Itappears to be affecting thousands of computers,
including those airlines. I knew youguys in your city are experiencing some of
those issues at your local airport,banks as well hospitals, media organizations.
Here at ABC News, we've hada few computers be thrown offline, even
nine to one to one operators incertain states. So there are some pretty
(01:07):
big ripple effects here. As westart to learn more about this. It
does appear that some of the issuesare being fixed. CrowdStrike CEO George Kertz
posted on social media in addition tothe fact that this is not a security
incident or a cyber attack or anythinglike that, that they have shipped out
a fix that certain computers will beokay if you turn them on this morning.
(01:30):
But there are some questions remaining aboutthe computers that are currently stuck in
this startup loop that is essentially whatwe're seeing. Just to kind of go
over exactly what is happening here.When you start up your computer, it
enters into a sort of boot mode. But what this security update seems to
have done, it has thrown theminto a loop where these computers are just
(01:52):
constantly starting up and they never actuallylog in. And that is sort of
the problem that has happened here.Again, it does seem to be fixed,
least in some capacity, or beingfixed. As evidence of that,
some of the airlines that institute aground stop overnight have started to fly planes
again. But there are continuing issues, including at hospitals and at various emergency
(02:15):
services across the country. Issues thatI think we're going to continue to see
as more of the country and theworld wakes up. We actually saw this
first in Australia, then in Europeand then here on the East coast,
and as the sun kind of risesand more people log in, I'm sure
we'll uncover more issues. But yeah, that's the state of play as it
stands right now. So we're sobeholden to these machines, right, I
(02:38):
mean when it comes to that,are the is it older computers that are
have more of the technology problem nowor is it maybe the type of computer.
I think it really comes down tothe software. So again, if
you run Windows, there's the potentialthat you kind of run into this issue
this morning. But again, youknow, they say they've shipped out an
(02:59):
up that if you turn on yourcomputer this morning, it should be fine,
but your mileage will vary. Ofcourse, a lot of the time
when a software update goes out likethis every day, people don't notice,
right There are software and security fixesthat go out all the time and they
kind of just happen in the background. This one seems to have a bad
bit of code in it, andfor what it's worth. George Kurtz,
(03:22):
again the CrowdStrike CEO, says thisdoesn't affect Mac or Linux computers. So
if you run something that isn't Windowscomputer, you should be in the clear
this morning. But there are alot of computers, especially in the business
in enterprise worlds, that rely onWindows very very heavily, and those are
the ones that are seeing the effectsof this this morning. Even if the
fix is out there, you know, sure your personal computer might be fine,
(03:45):
but here at ABC News, alot of our software runs off of
servers and they're somewhere else in thebuilding. I got to go find those.
So in addition to the technological challenges, there's also some real logistical ones
that are affecting people this morning.So you're a reporter, now you've got
to go fix it. I don'tknow if I'm gonna be the one that
thinks it, but someone's gonna go. Don't envy the man of all trades
(04:06):
there, all right, appreciate it, Mike. ABC News Tech reporter Mike
Demuski. We always had one Tuesday, and unless he's on vacation because he's
just terrific or tech Tuesdays. ScottAsport's coming up next,
Lights out, lights out, andmore man especially in Europe and Australia and
other nations with the global technology outage. Let's join Mike Debuski, ABC News
Tech Reporter Extraordinaire from New York II. Mike, is this a cyber attack?
No, that's the first thing tosay. The CEO of CrowdStrike,
(00:23):
which is the cybersecurity firm that sentout an update overnight that seems to have
knocked a lot of Windows computers offline, he has come out and he said,
this is just a faulty update.There's no reason to believe that this
was cyber terrorism or anything like that. This is a faulty bit of software
that we sent out to our customers, specifically our Windows customers, and it
(00:45):
really has had big impacts. Itappears to be affecting thousands of computers,
including those airlines. I knew youguys in your city are experiencing some of
those issues at your local airport,banks as well hospitals, media organizations.
Here at ABC News, we've hada few computers be thrown offline, even
nine to one to one operators incertain states. So there are some pretty
(01:07):
big ripple effects here. As westart to learn more about this. It
does appear that some of the issuesare being fixed. CrowdStrike CEO George Kertz
posted on social media in addition tothe fact that this is not a security
incident or a cyber attack or anythinglike that, that they have shipped out
a fix that certain computers will beokay if you turn them on this morning.
(01:30):
But there are some questions remaining aboutthe computers that are currently stuck in
this startup loop that is essentially whatwe're seeing. Just to kind of go
over exactly what is happening here.When you start up your computer, it
enters into a sort of boot mode. But what this security update seems to
have done, it has thrown theminto a loop where these computers are just
(01:52):
constantly starting up and they never actuallylog in. And that is sort of
the problem that has happened here.Again, it does seem to be fixed,
least in some capacity, or beingfixed. As evidence of that,
some of the airlines that institute aground stop overnight have started to fly planes
again. But there are continuing issues, including at hospitals and at various emergency
(02:15):
services across the country. Issues thatI think we're going to continue to see
as more of the country and theworld wakes up. We actually saw this
first in Australia, then in Europeand then here on the East coast,
and as the sun kind of risesand more people log in, I'm sure
we'll uncover more issues. But yeah, that's the state of play as it
stands right now. So we're sobeholden to these machines, right, I
(02:38):
mean when it comes to that,are the is it older computers that are
have more of the technology problem nowor is it maybe the type of computer.
I think it really comes down tothe software. So again, if
you run Windows, there's the potentialthat you kind of run into this issue
this morning. But again, youknow, they say they've shipped out an
(02:59):
up that if you turn on yourcomputer this morning, it should be fine,
but your mileage will vary. Ofcourse, a lot of the time
when a software update goes out likethis every day, people don't notice,
right There are software and security fixesthat go out all the time and they
kind of just happen in the background. This one seems to have a bad
bit of code in it, andfor what it's worth. George Kurtz,
(03:22):
again the CrowdStrike CEO, says thisdoesn't affect Mac or Linux computers. So
if you run something that isn't Windowscomputer, you should be in the clear
this morning. But there are alot of computers, especially in the business
in enterprise worlds, that rely onWindows very very heavily, and those are
the ones that are seeing the effectsof this this morning. Even if the
fix is out there, you know, sure your personal computer might be fine,
(03:45):
but here at ABC News, alot of our software runs off of
servers and they're somewhere else in thebuilding. I got to go find those.
So in addition to the technological challenges, there's also some real logistical ones
that are affecting people this morning.So you're a reporter, now you've got
to go fix it. I don'tknow if I'm gonna be the one that
thinks it, but someone's gonna go. Don't envy the man of all trades
(04:06):
there, all right, appreciate it, Mike. ABC News Tech reporter Mike
Demuski. We always had one Tuesday, and unless he's on vacation because he's
just terrific or tech Tuesdays. ScottAsport's coming up next,
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