What is CrowdStrike? The company tech experts say 'made a little update that broke everything'
NEW YORK - The widespread technology outage that has caused disruptions around the world Friday is being referred to as the "Global Microsoft outage"; but some experts say that's not exactly the case.
Instead, experts like TechRadar's editor at large, Lance Ulanoff, says CrowdStrike the global cyber security firm, is the one that "made a little update that broke everything."
"It's funny that everybody keeps calling this a Microsoft outage because the company really responsible is CrowdStrike," Lance Ulanoff told Good Day.
Ulanoff says the system is used all across the globe, "this global cybersecurity firm that is used by basically everyone you know," he says.
He says Microsoft and CrowdStrike end up integrated because they are backed up within the cybersecurity system.
Thus affecting microspot users everywhere.
What broke?
Ulanoff says he's taking the company's word for it that it was not a cyberattack.
"Usually with a cyberattack, it takes longer to figure out how to fix," he says.
He believes that there was a coding issue when they attempted to make a system-wide update in the middle of the night.
He went on to say that CrowdStrike knew exactly what the update was going to be, but didn't realize it had not been "regression tested" well enough to ensure it wasn't going to break all the systems.
"They don't expect it to break things, but updates can kind of confuse systems," he said.
Featured
Global Microsoft airline outage: See grounded flights, delays
A widespread Microsoft outage caused major disruptions to travel around the world Friday, including flights. Several airlines have already requested FAA assistance with ground stops.
What is CrowdStrike?
CrowdStrike offers cloud-based security solutions to businesses. Its Falcon tool - one of the reasons for the outage on Friday - identifies unusual behavior and vulnerabilities to protect computer systems from threats such as malware.
The company was founded in 2011 and is based in Austin, Texas, and employs over 7,000 employees and operates in more than 170 countries.
RELATED: Major global outage hits airlines, banks, businesses – what to know
"CrowdStrike has redefined security with the world’s most advanced cloud-native platform that protects and enables the people, processes, and technologies that drive modern enterprise. CrowdStrike secures the most critical areas of risk – endpoints and cloud workloads, identity, and data – to keep customers ahead of today’s adversaries and stop breaches," according to a post on the company’s website.
Featured
Global tech outage: How are NYC systems, services impacted?
Officials at city hall in NYC are keeping a close eye on how the widespread technology problems could impact systems such as 911 and 311.
When will the outage end?
Ulanoff says CowdStrike recognized the issue quickly. However, they didn't say exactly what the software update was.
He predicts that by midday things should be running close to normal again.
"It's a reminder that the people running these global systems that we're connected to have to be more careful," Ulanoff says.
See how the outage is impacting New York City here.
The Associated Press, contributed to this report.