# What caused 8.5 million Windows computers to crash in the CrowdStrike Falcon incident

DevFeed: [What caused 8.5 million Windows computers to crash in the CrowdStrike Falcon incident](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/here-s-what-really-caused-8-5-million-computers-to-crash-17967.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://newsletter.betterstack.com/p/heres-what-really-caused-85-million>)

Author: Richard Oliver Bray

Published: 2024-08-28T13:00:58Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Hacking Scale by Better Stack](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/hacking-scale-by-better-stack.md>)

Topics: [Security](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/security.md>), [Endpoint Security & XDR](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/endpoint-security-xdr.md>), [Windows](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/windows.md>), [Kernel](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/kernel.md>), [Machine learning](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/machine-learning.md>)

Tags: [endpoint-security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/endpoint-security.md>), [kernel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kernel.md>), [machine-learning](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/machine-learning.md>), [security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security.md>), [windows](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/windows.md>)

## AI overview

This article explains how a CrowdStrike Falcon software issue caused 8.5 million Windows machines to crash on July 19, 2024. It describes Falcon's endpoint-security architecture, including cloud servers, machine-learning analysis, threat intelligence, and kernel-level sensors.

## Source excerpt

How one security product crippled the world because of bad programming