CrowdStrike outage hits banks’ equipment finance ops

Several banks with large equipment finance portfolios faced operational disruptions Friday following an IT outage at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike that resulted in massive interruptions for industries including banks and airlines.  

Microsoft users worldwide reported blue screens as systems froze and users lost online access, reported Bank Automation News, a sister publication to Equipment Finance News. A CrowdStrike system update caused the outage, Gokul Mahendran, digital marketing lead at industrial automation company Barani Generic Systems, told BAN.  

According to CrowdStrike’s website, the outage: 

• Affects Windows 10 and later systems; 

• Does not impact Mac and Linux hosts; and 

• Is not due to malicious cyber activity. 

CrowdStrike Chief Executive George Kurtz tweeted that the company identified and began fixing a defect discovered in a single content update for Windows hosts.

“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix is being deployed,” Kurtz posted on Twitter. 

CrowdStrike 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. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…

— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024

Financial institutions hit

Institutions that reported outages today include Bank of America, Bank of Montreal, JPMorgan Chase, TD Bank and Wells Fargo, according to DownDetector. Those banks ranked as the second, 25th, fourth, 30th and third largest financiers by total equipment assets at yearend 2023, respectively, according to the 2024 Monitor 100. 

“TD and other organizations around the world have been impacted by a global technology disruption. Teams are working hard to restore all online banking and other impacted systems,” a TD Bank spokesperson told Auto Finance News, a sister publication to EFN, in a statement. “For immediate banking needs, TD customers can visit their local TD bank or fully operational ATM. We thank you for your patience.” 

— Additional reporting by Vaidik Trivedi and Amanda Harris 

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