CrowdStrike issues urgent instructions for blue screen of death' after Windows suffers global IT outage

Cyber firm CrowdStrike has issued urgent instructions for anyone trapped in a 'blue screen of death' loop.

Earlier today, global chaos unravelled after a slew of major companies were forced offline from a Windows glitch. Keir Starmer has been urged to hold an emergency COBRA meeting following the IT outage, which has wreaked havoc on GPs, banks, airlines, media companies, and individuals.

Passengers planning to fly from several UK airports were left stranded, while many Brits were unable to book doctor appointments or access their medical records. Queues quickly developed outside train stations as ticket machines went down and multiple delays impacted services.

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Despite fears of a life-changing cyberattack, Sky News' science and tech editor Tom Clark blamed the huge error on the blue screen of death. It is thought CrowdStrik was installing a Windows update which caused the issue.

The firm, which provides security protection for cloud software including the Microsoft 365 platform, blamed a corrupted file on Windows hosts. Company President George Kurtz added: "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack."

He added: "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team