What is Crowdstrike, the company behind unprecedented global IT outage

A global technology outage caused major disruptions across the world. The outage has been traced back to a cybersecurity company called Crowdstrike which provides anti-cyberattack services to Microsoft, among other companies. Crowdstrike is a US cybersecurity firm based in Austin, Texas which was founded in 2011. The company customers include 298 Fortune 500 companies, eight out of the top 10 financial services firms, seven out of the top 10 manufacturers, six of the top 10 healthcare providers and eight out of the top 10 food companies, it has said. Earlier, Crowdstrike was involved in investigations into cyberattacks such as the 2014 Sony Pictures hack and the hack of the Democratic National Committee in 2016.

What is Crowdstrike’s relationship with Microsoft?
Crowdstrike’s anti-cyberattack software is integrated directly into the Windows operating system which is designed by Microsoft. This means that a wide variety of devices across the globe use the software.