Thousands of Windows machines are encountering a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issue at boot today, affecting banks, airlines, TV broadcasters, supermarkets, and numerous other businesses globally. A faulty update from cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike is causing these PCs and servers to go offline, entering a recovery boot loop that prevents proper startup. CrowdStrike’s software is widely used by many businesses to manage the security of Windows PCs and servers.
The problem was first reported by Australian banks, airlines, and TV broadcasters as thousands of machines went offline. Now, the issue is spreading to Europe as businesses there begin their workday. UK broadcaster Sky News is currently unable to air its morning news bulletins, instead displaying a message apologizing for “the interruption to this broadcast.” Ryanair, one of Europe’s largest airlines, is also facing a “third-party” IT issue that is affecting flight departures.
Workaround Steps: 1 Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment
2 Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory
3 Locate the file matching “C-00000291*.sys”, and delete it. 4 Boot the host normally.