CrowdStrike BSOD cost companies $5.4 billion in losses, CrowdStrike tries to apologize with a $10 Uber Eats coupon
CrowdStrike’s recent update caused significant disruption, leading to $5.4 billion in losses and affecting millions of devices. As an apology, the company is offering users a $10 UberEats gift card.
After the buggy update crashed about 8.5 million Windows devices and cost businesses about $5.4 billion, CrowdStrike is now apologizing to its users by offering them a $10 UberEats gift card. According to the report, the cybersecurity firm is sending users this gift card as a token of apology while “recognizing the additional work they have had to do due to the July 19 incident.”
These apology tokens from CrowdStrike are being sent to users via email, with the aim of recognizing the extra work users have to do after being hit with the Blue Screen of Death error. The email, seen by TechCrunch, is reportedly signed by CrowdStrike’s chief business officer Daniel Bernard, and carries a heartfelt apology, and offers a gift card for “your next cup of coffee or late-night snack.”
However, several recipients reported on social media that the vouchers were showing errors during the redemption process due to suspected fraud, making the situation even worse. CrowdStrike spokesperson Kevin Benacchi told TechCrunch that the error occurred because Uber had flagged the gift cards due to high usage rates. “We sent these to our teammates and partners who are helping customers get through this situation. Uber flagged it as fraudulent due to high usage rates,” Benacchi said in an email.
Last Friday, after CrowdStrike released an update for its Falcon platform designed to defend against cyberattacks, millions of Windows devices crashed with the screen showing the Blue Screen of Death. The update contained a serious bug that caused massive system crashes. Airports in cities like Delhi, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dubai and London faced hours of delays, forcing many flights to be cancelled or rescheduled, while hospitals had to halt surgeries. Many businesses and banks were also unable to process payments or continue normal operations, leading to one of the biggest outages in tech history.
Following the incident, CrowdStrike apologized multiple times and detailed its efforts to resolve the situation. CEO George Kurtz stated in his apology that “Everyone at CrowdStrike understands the severity and impact of the situation… Nothing is more important to me than the trust and confidence our customers and partners place in CrowdStrike. As we resolve this incident, I will commit to providing you with full transparency about how it happened and what steps we are taking to prevent any such incident from ever happening again.” Chief Security Officer Shawn Henry also expressed deep regret, acknowledging the severe consequences for their customers.
In response to this crisis and to ensure that an incident like this does not happen again in the future, CrowdStrike stated that it will be implementing incremental updates to prevent widespread disruptions like this one going forward.