The global software update launched by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike and utilized by Microsoft on July 19, 2024, caused one of the biggest Information Technology (IT) outages in recent times, severely affecting the operations of businesses, airlines, and medical buildings around the world. Any entity using Microsoft computing systems was hit by the bug.
This incident once again highlighted the vulnerabilities of a digitized world dependent on just a handful of providers.
The outage has been christened “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD), the name of the error message displayed on Microsoft computing systems internationally.
The “blue screen of death”—a blue screen with white text—is what a Microsoft Windows user sees when the system crashes.
‘Blue Screen of Death’ Message on Las Vegas Sphere
An interesting example of the BSOD is its positioning over the Las Vegas Sphere. The picture was posted by X users and became the point of discussions. Although the picture looks genuine, it has been digitally altered and is fake.
The picture has been verified by Snopes, a popular fact-checking website, and when the image was run through TinEye, a reverse image search engine, it was revealed that the image has been appearing online since at least July 2023.
Snopes also used FotoForensics, a platform that specializes in digital image forensics, and it was revealed that the image was fake.
The “BSOD” image has spawned a huge debate on social media, and many netizens are trying to dissect the truth about the image.
An X post with more than 4 million views read: “Microsoft Windows users right now.”
The outage has also led to the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation, such as “cyberattack,” which has trended on X, while searches for “cyberattack” spiked on Google.
However, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz has clarified that it was not a security breach or a cyberattack; it was only an outage on the Windows hosts precipitated by a faulty update.
However, many users are blaming Microsoft for the outage.
X owner Elon Musk, who has over 190 million followers on X, has been reposting memes that imply Microsoft is the culprit.
Before the latest outage caused by the CrowdStrike update, Microsoft did experience a Microsoft 365 outage overnight. However, technical experts were quick to clarify that it was unrelated to the latest outage.
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