ET Explainer: how a CrowdStrike update knocked the world offline

Two days after an update from CrowdStrike triggered an error in Microsoft Windows operating systems and affected 8.5 million Windows-run devices across the globe, both companies have released an analysis of the sequence of events of July 19, why the crash happened and how such crashes can be avoided in the future.

In an update to its users late on Saturday, CrowdStrike said that a sensor configuration update to Windows systems was released early on July 19.