What is CrowdStrike? Here’s what to know about the company linked to global outage
FILE-In this photo illustration, the CrowdStrike logo of is seen on a smartphone and a pc screen. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
As the world grapples with a global computer outage disrupting airlines, banks, media companies, and organizations and services, the issue appears in part to be related to a software update by Crowdstrike.
CrowdStrike said Friday that the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack — and that a fix was on the way. It added that the problem happened when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows.
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.
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In 2019, the organization launched a partnership with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team and months later became a publicly traded company.
"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.
CrowdStrike’s Nasdaq-traded shares were down nearly 15% in premarket trading early Friday, the Associated Press reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.