Cybersecurity

CrowdStrike Crash Forces Manual Reboot of Affected Computers

The IT outage has hamstrung businesses around the world
Began with a botched update to CrowdStrike’s security software

A display message reads "It looks like Windows didn't load correctly" as travelers wait in line at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on July 19. — A display message reads "It looks like Windows didn't load correctly" as travelers wait in line at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on July 19.
Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg

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By Evan Gorelick and Jake Bleiberg

July 19, 2024 at 11:19 AM EDT

Updated on

July 19, 2024 at 3:53 PM EDT

This article is for subscribers only.

All Windows computers affected by a global IT failure on Friday will need to be manually rebooted, CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., the cybersecurity company responsible for the outage, said in a statement on Friday.

“It was a content bug, or update, that we sent out and we’ve identified, and that we’ve rolled back,” Chief Executive Officer George Kurtz added in an interview with CNBC. He apologized to customers, and said some systems would take a few hours to come back online while others would take longer.