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UAE authority issues alert over Crowdstrike technical glitch

Users are urged not to download and install any update from the software until the issue is resolved

Published: Fri 19 Jul 2024, 2:18 PM

Updated: Fri 19 Jul 2024, 10:19 PM

By
Web Desk

Amid global outages affecting major airlines and banks, UAE authorities on Friday issued an alert — urging users of Crowdstrike software to be wary of any software updates.

"We inform you that there is a technical defect in the Crowdstrike software update that may affect the electronic systems of the institutions that use it," the UAE's Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority said in a post.

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Users are advised not to perform any updates or downloads until the problem is resolved.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said it was aware of reports of a Windows vulnerability on one of the servers.

The TDRA is monitoring the situation.

Crowdstrike is a US-based cybersecurity technology firm that serves major institutions from around the world.

In Australia, media, banks and telecoms companies suffered outages, which the government said appears to be linked to a Crowdstrike issue.

Crowdstrike ran a recorded phone message on Friday when Reuters contacted its technical support saying it was aware of reports of crashes on Microsoft's Windows operating system relating to its Falcon sensor, without mentioning Australia.

There was no information to suggest the outage was a cyber security incident, the office of Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness said in a post on X.

The outages rippled far and wide, with Spain reporting a "computer incident" at all its airports, while Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, warned passengers of potential disruptions which it said would affect “all airlines operating across the network," though it did not specify the nature of the disruptions.

AWS cloud service provider said in a statement that it was "investigating reports of connectivity issues to Windows EC2 instances and Workspaces within AWS."

It was not immediately clear whether all reported outages were linked to Crowdstrike problems or there were other issues at play.

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