The 'Fake' CrowdStrike Worker Who Crippled Windows Users Worldwide
"What is CrowdStrike? Why is my Windows computer showing the Blue Screen of Death? Who is responsible for the biggest-ever IT outage?"
These are questions that have dominated conversations across the globe after a Microsoft error brought Windows computers to its heels. While it is now known that an update to an anti-virus program 'Falcon Sensor' by CrowdStrike was responsible for the massive worldwide outage, people have still been wondering how such a defective update was allowed to be released and who was behind it.
Step in Vincent Flibustier, an X user parading to be a Crowdstrike employee. Vincent broke the internet with an altered, AI-generated photo of him outside the CrowdStrike office along with the caption, "First day at Crowdstrike, pushed a little update and taking the afternoon off."
The photo went viral within minutes and already has nearly 4 lakh likes and has been shared by over 36,000 users.
Two hours later, Flibustier posted another update - the company had fired him. He also shared a short video where he takes 'responsibility' for causing the global outage.
Vincent Flibustier also changed his X (former Twitter) bio to accompany the parody. His bio said, "Former Crowdstrike employee, fired for an unfair reason, only changed 1 line of code to optimize. Looking for a job as Sysadmin."
While he was trying to make a joke about it, thousands online bought his satire and thought he was the one responsible for the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) on their system. Airlines, banks, TV channels, and several other industries were scrambling to deal with the issue, and people on social media went into overdrive after finding the 'culprit'.
While several users praised him for ensuring that they don't have to work on a Friday, some posted abusive messages about him.
The truth: Vincent is a satirical writer who runs Nordpresse, a Belgian parody news site. He appeared as a guest on France TV, where he remarked, "People are drawn to stories that confirm their preconceptions."
Explaining further why people on the internet immediately latched on to his joke, he said, "No culprit named yet, I bring it on a platter, people like to have a culprit. The culprit seems completely stupid, he is proud of his stupidity, he takes his afternoon off on the first day of work. This falls right into a huge buzz in which people absolutely need to have new information, and a fake is by nature new, you won't read it anywhere else."
He also said that the post was shared by those who knew it was a joke, but the amplification sent it into a zone where people took every word of the tweet literally.
Millions of users across the globe are still facing issues, with both Microsoft and CrowdStrike trying to resolve the issue at the earliest.
The latest version of its Falcon Sensor software was meant to make CrowdStrike clients' systems more secure against hacking by updating the threats it defends against. However faulty code in the update files resulted in one of the most widespread tech outages in recent years for companies using Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Problems came to light quickly after the update was rolled out on Friday, and users posted pictures on social media of computers with blue screens displaying error messages. These are known in the industry as "blue screens of death."