CrowdStrike: Microsoft reveals 8.5m Windows devices affected in global downtime

American technology company, Microsoft, has revealed that at least 8.5 million Windows devices were affected by the CrowdStrike outage.

The company’s Vice President in charge of enterprise and OS security, David Weston, disclosed this in a blogpost on Monday.

He added that the number represents less than 1 percent of Windows machines globally.

Although the number of impacted devices was relatively small, the damage was extensive and global, affecting banks, shops, brokerage firms, train networks, and other entities.

Airlines all across the world have paused flights over the incident.

He wrote: “While the percentage [of affected devices] was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services.”

READ ALSO:Microsoft and Open AI face legal action over alleged copyright infringement

Reports revealed that global IT downtime was caused by a cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike whose software is used by scores of industries around the world to protect against hackers and outside breaches.

Further information revealed that the problem appeared to result in crashes of machines running the Microsoft Windows operating system.

In an update shared on its X account on Friday, Microsoft 365 said that “multiple services are continuing to see improvements in availability as our mitigation actions progress.”

According to a Microsoft web page tracking the status of its services, “users may be unable to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.”

The global IT downtime is also affecting apps including Microsoft Fabric, Teams, Purview, Defender, SharePoint, and OneNote.

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