Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike says a “significant number” of devices affected by a global IT outage on Friday are now back online.
In a social media post, the company – whose faulty security update caused Microsoft Windows computers to crash worldwide – added that it “remains focused on restoring all systems”.
Microsoft estimates that the incident has been described as one of the worst IT incidents in history, affected 8.5 million computers worldwide..
Businesses, banks, hospitals and airlines were among the hardest hit, with some still struggling to fully restore their systems.
“We understand the profound impact this has had on everyone. We know our customers, partners and their IT teams are working tirelessly and we are incredibly grateful,” CrowdStrike said.
“We apologize for the disruption this has caused.”
The company also said it is rolling out a new fix that it hopes will speed up the recovery of computer systems.
CrowdStrike did not say how many devices were still affected, however.
More than 1,400 flights to and from the United States were canceled on Sunday, according to aviation data and tracking platform FlightAware.
Delta and United Airlines were the two hardest hit US airlines.
Health services in Britain, Israel and Germany were also affected on Friday, with some services cancelled.
The widespread power outage has highlighted the vulnerability of global computer networks, showing how even a single glitch could cause global chaos.
“Today, it’s common for a small glitch to lead to a system-wide outage, affecting industries ranging from healthcare and airlines to banks and auto dealerships,” Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan said in a social media post.
“These incidents show how centralization can create fragile systems.”
Until this incident, the company was still one of the most trusted brands in the cybersecurity industry.
According to CrowdStrike’s website, the company has 29,000 customers worldwide, including some of the largest companies in the United States.
One major economy that was largely unaffected by the power outage was China.because CrowdStrike is not widely used in this country.
China also doesn’t rely on Microsoft as much as the rest of the world.
