CrowdStrike, the company responsible for last week’s global IT outage, has faced criticism for their apology in the form of $10 food vouchers. The outage, which cost companies billions of dollars, affected 5% of the world’s air traffic and caused major disruptions within the NHS.
In an email sent out to staff, CrowdStrike expressed their gratitude and apologized for the additional workload caused by the incident. A screenshot of the email showed the company acknowledging the inconvenience caused and offering their thanks. However, some recipients took to social media to report that the vouchers did not work for them.
TechCrunch, who first reported the story, attempted to use one of the gift cards but encountered an error message from Uber Eats stating that the card had been cancelled by the issuing party and was no longer valid. A spokesperson from CrowdStrike clarified that the vouchers were only intended for their “teammates and partners” who had been assisting customers during the crisis. They also explained that the high usage rates had triggered a fraud alert from Uber.
Last Friday’s outage, which is still affecting systems today, was caused by a faulty software update that affected approximately 8.5 million Microsoft Windows devices. This resulted in delays for airports, broadcasters, hospitals, and businesses. The faulty update was meant to enhance security against hacking but instead caused devices to crash with a “blue screen of death” due to flawed code.
In an update on Wednesday, CrowdStrike revealed that a code error had slipped through their safety procedures, leading to the crash. They have since implemented a new check to prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future.
The economic impact of the outage is still being assessed and may never be fully known. According to a report by insurer Parametrix, the direct financial loss for US Fortune 500 companies, excluding Microsoft, is estimated to be $5.4 billion. It is clear that the consequences of the outage have been significant and CrowdStrike has faced backlash for their handling of the situation.
