Statement from the National Cyber Security Centre on global IT incident

The NCSC is aware of a global incident concerning the latest update of CrowdStrike security software. The NCSC is contacting its constituents and stakeholders to best ascertain the level of impact to systems in Ireland. Whilst there are impacts in several sectors, all essential services continue to operate normally. Similarly, government IT is not currently affected.

We are aware that there may be unexpected impacts to citizens arising from the incident, and we will continue to work with any providers affected to gain an understanding of how their systems may have been affected, and to provide assistance remediating the issue.

The update is causing what is commonly referred to as a 'Blue Screen of Death' or BSOD loop on Windows. This is a system crash, where the Windows operating system can no longer operate. CrowdStrike have identified the cause of this issue, and provided advice on how to restore using a workaround.

The issue is a worldwide one, affecting all CrowdStrike customers, and is not localised to Ireland.

Information on the workaround is available on the NCSC website.

We will continue to provide updates on our social media channels as appropriate throughout the day - at https://twitter.com/ncsc_gov_ie and on the NCSC's LinkedIn page.

ENDS

Notes to the Editor

National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) was founded in 2011 and is an operational, cyber-security unit within the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.

The NCSC has three main roles. These are:

To defend the State, including government and critical infrastructure, against cyber-security risks by monitoring, detecting and responding to cyber-security incidents, including large scale cyber security incident response
To build resilience across the State and society by providing guidance and advice to citizens and businesses on major cyber-security incidents, by applying a series of requirements on vendors, critical infrastructure operators and public bodies
Developing and maintaining strong international relationships in the global cyber-security community for the purposes of information sharing and incident response coordination

Statement from the National Cyber Security Centre on global IT incident

Notes to the Editor

National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)

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