Thousands of computers running Microsoft Windows and a cybersecurity program by CrowdStrike experienced a serious outage on Friday morning, resulting in a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). The problem has potentially affected millions of people worldwide as airlines, airport authorities, banks, government organizations, private companies and municipal officials scramble to fix the issue. The Windows outage is so severe and widespread that many are attributing it to a cyberattack. However, the CEO of CrowdStrike has now released a statement, saying that Windows computers are glitching not because of a cyberattack but because of a bug.

A few hours after the issue was reported, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz offered some clarification on Twitter aka X. He wrote, “CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a vulnerability found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.”

They then added: “The issue has been identified, isolated, and resolved. We encourage customers to visit the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide full and ongoing updates on our website. We also advise organizations to ensure they communicate with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels.”

CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company focused on providing cybersecurity tools to large organizations and governments. The company has close ties with US government agencies and as a result, is trusted by many government organizations and major companies around the world. This is why when its update caused a bug in Windows computers, it affected airports and other large companies running critical services.

While much will become clear in the coming days, as of now, it appears that the Windows system outage on Friday was caused by an update released by CrowdStrike to its software Falcon. The company has also reportedly offered a temporary and manual fix. In a note shared with its customers, CrowdStrike has suggested that customers can:

1. Boot Windows into Safe Mode or WRE.
2. Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike
3. Locate and delete the file that matches “C-00000291*.sys”
Boot up normally.

Many IT experts are calling Friday’s Windows outage the worst in history. In a series of tweets, security researcher Troy Hunt said, “I don’t think it’s too early to say it: this will be the largest IT outage in history. The financial impact is already hard to comprehend. BSoDs seem to be appearing everywhere right now. This is basically what we were all worrying about with Y2K, except this time it actually happened.”