The CrowdStrike-Microsoft outage has left countless disruptions across the world, including the cancellation of more than 2,500 U.S. flights, issues with 911 systems and government agencies, and countless headaches for IT workers.
Naturally, the right wing is blaming corporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion principles, better known as DEI.
Early Friday morning, Twitter CEO Elon Musk found an old CrowdStrike post from 2022 highlighting diversity with a picture of a woman wearing a hijab and took a shot at DEI.
Twitter screenshot CrowdStrike @CrowdStrike: We were proud to be a Gold Partner of @brightnetwork 's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Panel. Our team shared their career journeys and tips on how we are creating an equitable and inclusive workplace for all. #WeAreCrowdStrike with a photo of a woman wearing hijab
Steve Guest, a former staffer for Senator Ted Cruz, looked up the company’s statement on diversity, equity, and inclusion and blamed the company for grounding flights.
Twitter screenshot Steve Guest @SteveGuest: Equity is nobody in the world being able to get on an airplane simultaneously. Thanks CrowdStrike. With a photo screenshot of a CrowdStrike statement on DEI
Conservative pundit Steven Crowder attacked one of the company’s posts about Pride Month from June.
Twitter screenshot Steven Crowder @scrowder: Wonder if DEI had anything to do with this morning's chaos With a screenshot from a Crowdstrike tweet from June 1: We celebrate ��️�� Pride Month ��️�� and the incredible LGBTQ+ community that enriches our lives, our work and our mission. @CrowdStrike is committed to fostering a workplace that is inclusive, respectful, and celebrates diversity. We proudly stop breaches, together.
Right-wing election fraud conspiracist and pardoned felon Dinesh D’Souza also took aim at the company’s statement.
Twitter screenshot Dinesh D'Souza @DineshDSouza: “Diversity is our greatest strength” with a screenshot of a Crowdstrike statement: "Crowdstrike's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion"
And the right’s point man on tearing down America’s education system, Christopher Rufo, similarly saw something nefarious in the company’s DEI efforts.
Twitter screenshot Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️@realchrisrufo Went all-in on DEI. Massive internet outage. I'm not assigning causation in this particular instance, but it is an iron law of institutions that DEI leads directly to incompetence, corruption, discrimination, and fraud. Quote tweet of Crowdstrike March 22, 22022: We were proud to be a Gold Partner of @brightnetwork 's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Panel. Our team shared their career journeys and tips on how we are creating an equitable and inclusive workplace for all. #WeAreCrowdStrike
American conservatives blame everything on DEI these days, whether it’s the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the rise in train derailments, or even Republican election losses. To them, every negative event somehow is because there are minorities, women, and queer people having jobs.
However, while the right might see all of the damning evidence on display, is CrowdStrike reallycommitted to diversity, equity, and inclusion? The makeup of their board of directors suggests that it only goes so far.
Twitter screenshot ProLib ���� @prolibshow: Yeah, look at all the DEI on the Crowdstrike board of directors (with a picture of the Board of Directors, all but one is white)
The CrowdStrike outage that hit early Friday morning and knocked out computers running Microsoft Windows has grounded flights globally. Major U.S. airlines including United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have halted flight operations around the world. According to FlightAware, which is tracking the cancellations live, 7% of United Airlines flights, 8% of American Airlines flights and 12% of Delta flights have been canceled.
Businesses across the world are reporting IT outages, including Windows "blue screen of death" errors on their computers, in what has already become one of the most widespread IT disruptions in recent years. The outage — linked to a software update from popular cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike — has affected computers running Microsoft Windows at organizations across various sectors, including airlines, banks, retailers, brokerage houses, media companies and railway networks. CrowdStrike's chief executive, George Kurtz, confirmed in a post on X that a "defect" in a content update for Windows hosts had caused the outage, and Kurtz ruled out a cyberattack.
As much of the world slowly gets back online after an outage caused by cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike led to global travel and business gridlock, malicious actors are also trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA said in a statement Friday that though the CrowdStrike outage was not linked to a cyberattack or malicious activity, it has "observed threat actors taking advantage of this incident for phishing and other malicious activity."
Windows users around the globe woke up on Friday morning to "blue screens of death" (BSOD) thanks to a faulty software update from CrowdStrike. In 2024, one buggy software update should probably not be allowed to take down so many of the globe's most important computer systems. The CrowdStrike outage is drawing attention to cybersecurity companies, but CRV general partner Reid Christian notes this wasn't a cybersecurity event.
Around the world, thousands of people like Nicole have had a wrench thrown into their plans due to this outage, which knocked out countless computers running Microsoft Windows. “We were a little bit nervous about [transporting the engagement ring] anyway, but then this just added a whole layer of complexity to it,” Nicole told TechCrunch. Now, the Delta flight she planned to take with her husband early Friday morning has been delayed until 3 p.m. ET at least.
The CrowdStrike debacle — a bug in the company's Windows software that had the disastrous effect of rendering PCs unusable — has disrupted flights, canceled elective medical treatments, and left many an office worker twiddling their thumbs for hours. Unsurprisingly, it's also tanked CrowdStrike's stock price, even as the company's CEO, George Kurtz, promises a fix and systems begin to crawl back online. While it's difficult to assess at present the business fallout from what's being called the worst IT outage in history, investors appear to be sensing opportunity.
Air traffic for many airlines ground to a halt after a buggy update from CrowdStrike took down Windows computers around the world. While the IT outage is causing headaches for travelers, it may also have an unexpected effect on the climate: clearer skies and maybe lower temperatures this evening, according to David Travis, a scientist who has performed pioneering research on how jets can affect the weather. Planes flying at high altitudes frequently leave contrails, the billowy streaks created when jet engines dump water vapor and pollution into the atmosphere.
On Friday morning, as the East Coast woke up to one of the most widespread IT disruptions ever due to a faulty CrowdStrike update, a priceless image circulated across X, accumulating millions of views. It appeared that the Sphere — the ostentatious new addition to the Las Vegas skyline, with 580,000 square feet of programmable LEDs on its exterior — had succumbed to the blue screen of death. It would be easy to believe this photo was real; after all, we're seeing images of the blue screen of death in airports and hospitals around the world.
With airlines halted across the country, athletes are affected as Erica Wheeler struggles to make WNBA All-Star Weekend and Kyle Okposo cancels Stanley Cup event.
Samsung has temporarily shut down Galaxy Buds 3 Pro shipments. With memories of its flaming hot (and not in a good way) Galaxy Note fiasco eight years ago, the company is halting the earbuds’ launch while “urgently assessing and enhancing.”
