CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologises for blue screen of death chaos

The boss of the company now synonymous with the “blue screen of death” fiasco has “personally” apologised for the worldwide outage.

CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz has “personally” apologised for the worldwide outage that affected millions after the “blue screen of death” appeared on their monitors.

The widespread outage hit Australia after a planned Microsoft upgrade malfunctioned about 3pm (AEST) on July 19, throwing millions of people and businesses into chaos.

Mr Kurtz said more than 97 per cent of Windows sensors impacted by the outage were now back up and running.

CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz says he takes personal responsibility for the ‘blue screen of death’ fiasco. Picture: Supplied

“This progress is thanks to the tireless efforts of our customers, partners, and the dedication of our team at CrowdStrike,” he said in a statement.

“However, we understand our work is not yet complete, and we remain committed to restoring every impacted system.

“To our customers still affected, please know we will not rest until we achieve full recovery.

“At CrowdStrike, our mission is to earn your trust by safeguarding your operations.”

The shutdown affected countries including New Zealand, Japan, India, the US and the UK.

In Australia, businesses, eftpos services, airlines, banks, supermarkets and media organisations such as News Corp’s global operations, the ABC, SBS, Channel 7, Channel 9 and Network 10 were affected by the outage.

The ‘blue screen of death’ appeared on millions of computers on July 19. Picture: Supplied

Mr Kurtz thanked everyone for their “patience, support, and trust” while teams were continuing to work on further solutions.

“I am deeply sorry for the disruption this outage has caused and personally apologise to everyone impacted,” he said.

“ While I can’t promise perfection, I can promise a response that is focused, effective and with a sense of urgency.

“Our recovery efforts have been enhanced thanks to the development of automatic recovery techniques and by mobilising all our resources to support our customers.

“CrowdStrike is committed to building on our mission to stop breaches, with a renewed focus on customer controls and resilience.

“Customer obsession has always been our guiding principle, and this experience has only strengthened our resolve.”

Originally published as CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologises for blue screen of death chaos