One week after the breakdown

Automatically saved draft

One week after the worldwide computer outages caused by an error made by IT security specialist CrowdStrike, 97 percent of the affected computers are up and running again, according to the software company. At the same time, this means that around 250,000 computers are still likely to be paralyzed.

"Our recovery efforts have been enhanced thanks to the development of automated recovery techniques and by mobilizing all of our resources to support our customers," CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz wrote on LinkedIn on Thursday. He assured that the company would not rest until all computers were restored

CrowdStrike has since discovered that the test mechanisms in the software update on Friday last week let a faulty file through, which then caused Windows computers to crash. According to estimates by Windows developer Microsoft, around 8.5 million computers were affected.

The consequences were felt particularly strongly in air traffic, but some supermarkets, hospitals, banks and television stations also had problems.

Updates only in stages in future
CrowdStrike's test systems are now being improved - and updates are to be rolled out gradually in future so that any problems do not affect all customers immediately.