Blue Screen Of Death Is Not A Cybersecurity Incident, Says Australian Cybersecurity Minister
"This is a technical issue, caused by a Crowdstrike update to its customers. The company has informed us that most issues should be resolved through the fix they have provided, but given the size and nature of this incident it may take some time to resolve," Clare O'Neil, Minister of Cyber Security said.
Mihir Bagwe July 19, 2024
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With major banks, media companies, big tech and critical infrastructures including airports and airlines being disrupted all over the globe due to a “Blue Screen of Death” – or better know as the BSOD error stemming from a little known about file named “csagent.sys” associated to CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor, Australian Home Affairs Department on Friday night said “There is no reason to panic.”
Australian Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil said her government conducted a National Coordination Mechanism meeting late Friday evening, where representatives of the cybersecurity company under the scanner – CrowdStrike also attended. Post the meeting, O’Neil said, “We can confirm there is no evidence that this is a cyber-security incident.”
O’Neil explained that it is a technical issue caused by a CrowdStrike update that was shipped to its customers. “They have issued a fix for this, allowing affected companies and organizations to reboot their systems without the problem,” she added.
“The company has informed us that most issues should be resolved through the fix they have provided, but given the size and nature of this incident it may take some time to resolve.”
– Clare O’Neil, Minister of Cyber Security
Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness, reiterated O’Neil’s words and said, “There is no information to suggest it is a cyber security incident.”
“I am aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across Australia this afternoon. Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform [from CrowdStrike] employed by affected companies.”
– Michelle McGuinness, National Cyber Security Coordinator
The Blue Screen of Death Error Widespread But No Need to Panic
Since the early hours of Friday morning, several Australian entities across sectors reported outages. A screenshot shared by a platform X (formerly known as Twitter) user gave a gist of the number of entities that were impacted by the Blue Screen of Death or BSOD error.
Source: Platform X user @RMXD
Owing to the widespread impact and a general panic observed around the nation, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stepped in to address the issue at hand. He said, “I understand Australians are concerned about the outage that is unfolding globally and affecting a wide range of services. My Government is working closely with the National Cyber Security Coordinator.”
Albanese assured that, “There is no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or Triple-0 services at this stage.”
He added that the National Coordination Mechanism was activated and the response to the incident is currently an all of government approach.
After the conclusion of the National Coordination Mechanism meeting, Australian Deputy Secretary of Home Affairs Ministry, Hamish Hansford reassured the Australian people that “there is no reason to panic. CrowdStrike are on it. It is not a cybersecurity incident and we are working as fast as possible to resolve the situation.”
Response from CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike said it is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. “Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” CrowdStrike said.
CrowdStrikes engineers have identified, isolated and fixed the issue, according to their blogpost.
“We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”
