Around 8.5 million devices—less than 1% of Windows machines globally—were impacted by a recent CrowdStrike outage, as reported by David Weston, Microsoft’s VP of enterprise and OS security. This outage, caused by a CrowdStrike cybersecurity software update, led to crashes on Windows machines, while Mac and Linux devices remained unaffected.
Despite the relatively low number of affected devices, the outage had widespread global consequences, disrupting banks, retailers, brokerage companies, rail networks, and more. Airlines also halted flight operations worldwide. Weston highlighted that the small percentage of affected devices belies the significant economic and societal impact, as many critical services rely on CrowdStrike.
The exact percentage of Windows devices with CrowdStrike software that were affected was not disclosed. Even a single crashed computer could potentially disrupt an entire network or data center. Although not a Microsoft incident, the company has been collaborating with CrowdStrike to address the issue. They have developed a scalable solution to expedite fixes within Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure and are also working with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.
