The CrowdStrike Outage

In July 2024, a faulty software update to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform caused around 8.5 million Windows devices to crash. The incident disrupted airlines, hospitals, banks, broadcasters and public services, with the UK economy alone estimated to have lost around £2 billion. In this episode of ‘What Just Happened?’, hosts Tamara Littleton and Kate Hartley are joined by managing partner at Clarity Kristin Ingraham to look at the reputational and legal fallout, including Delta Airlines’ $500 million lawsuit, CrowdStrike’s controversial $10 Uber Eats voucher gesture to vendors, and the wider debate about liability, accountability and apology. We discuss how a small flaw in an update created a major operational crisis, forcing affected machines into the “blue screen of death” and requiring many to be fixed manually. We also explore how Microsoft and CrowdStrike responded, contrasting Microsoft’s collaborative and clear messaging with CrowdStrike’s initially corporate and unemotional statement. The episode explores how crisis communication must balance legal caution with humanity, and discusses how legal, communications, IT and leadership teams must build trust before a crisis hits. We debate how much preparedness, empathy and cross-functional collaboration are essential to reputation recovery. A full transcript of today’s show is available to read here.