In a monumental slip-up by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which has been a sponsor of the Mercedes Formula 1 team since 2019, global operations across various sectors have come to a grinding halt. A seemingly routine update from CrowdStrike inadvertently triggered widespread IT disruptions, manifesting primarily as the infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) on Windows-operated computers worldwide.
Sky News was forced off air; flights were grounded across the United States; train services in the UK faced severe disruptions, and passengers in Edinburgh Airport met with boarding chaos. The source of these disruptions was traced back to a faulty component in the Falcon Sensor, a CrowdStrike security product designed to safeguard systems from breaches.
CrowdStrike’s director of Overwatch, with the username ‘Brody’, clarified via X (formerly Twitter) that the underlying issue stemmed not from the update itself but from a “faulty channel file,” significantly impacting the company’s operations and its reputation.
There is a faulty channel file, so not quite an update.
There is a workaround…
1. Boot Windows into Safe Mode or WRE.
2. Go to C:WindowsSystem32driversCrowdStrike
3. Locate and delete file matching “C-00000291*.sys”
4. Boot normally.1/2
— Brody (@brody_n77) July 19, 2024
As it stands, CrowdStrike engineers are working to resolve the issue, with Microsoft also initiating necessary mitigation steps across its cloud services.
Clive Rose/Getty Images
The outage has led to widespread discussion within the Formula 1 community as to whether Mercedes will be affected during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, which begins with the first two practice sessions today. Taking to social media platform Reddit, fans have been debating the issues comparing it to Sky Sports F1 which has been able to get back up and running after a minor issue this morning. One fan posted:
“Considering Sky were also affected but they’re showing the F3 practise right now I reckon they’ll be fine. Sounds like a fix is already working its way around now”
Another fan clarified the issues within Sky, writing:
“It was Sky News that was affected and still is with no tickers or live reports. Sky Sports News has been running as normal. Sky Sports channels are running as normal. We’ll see what happens when the teams start booting up their computers at the track.”
However, another fan disagreed, responding:
“Their laptops have CS protection software added so yes, if they can’t boot up the laptop, the cars won’t start. I imagine it’s a very urgent call from trackside to HQ for a fix.”
The Mercedes F1 team has not made any announcements at this stage and looks to be continuing without any issues. The first free practice session at the Hungaroring is due to take place at 1.30pm local time followed by FP2 at 5pm local time.
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