Windows computers around the world are being hit by the
dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) thanks to an outage caused by services
provided by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. The issue has impacted everyone
from banks to airlines, with flights grounded, grocery carts abandoned, and productivity
even lower than usual for a Friday.
Fortunately, CrowdStrike has since announced at 2:30 a.m.
ET 07/19.24 that it has identified the update causing the issue and rolled it
back. The company also offered a workaround for anyone having problems.
To fix the problem,
1.
Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows
Recovery Environment
2.
Go to: %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike
directory
3.
Locate the file matching “C-00000291*.sys” and
delete it.
4.
Reboot normally.
"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers
impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,"
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on X. "Mac and Linux hosts are not
impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been
identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed."
To prevent for enterprise environment,
·
Backup!
·
Test updates before deploying them to
production.
