After a global tech outage on Friday impacted critical systems reliant on Microsoft infrastructure, many pointed fingers at the tech company despite the crisis stemming from a CrowdStrike update. Over the weekend, Frank Shaw, chief communications officer at Microsoft, rebuked these accusers.
This WSJ story is a great example of vibe-based journalism, where based on vibes the reporters decide what to write, then force-fit quotes into the narrative, blinking sheepishly when they end up in conflict. As in:
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) July 21, 2024
"Friday’s outage was caused by a buggy update sent to corporate…
Tom Dotan and Robert McMillan, two reporters who worked on the story, did not publicly respond to Shaw’s comments.
On LinkedIn, Shaw replied to Mat Velloso, VP of product and AI/ML developer at Google, who posted that the outage “is a sobering reminder of the fragility and high cost of management that Windows carries.”
“Mat, you know this was not a Windows or [Microsoft] issue,” he commented.
On X, Shaw directed the same sentiment to technology writer Om Malik, who has since deleted his post.
Do better Om. This is BS and you know better -- Windows users are being affected by an update from CRWD that caused these crashes. https://t.co/BWc96S2wgy
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) July 19, 2024
Shaw told PRWeek that his first priority was getting out accurate information that explained the cause of the issue and provided context about the scope, as many more people saw news of the outage than were affected by it.
“We didn’t cause it but our customers were affected,” he said.
On Saturday, Microsoft shared a blog post outlining its efforts to restore systems. The following day, the company released a recovery tool designed to help IT workers repair Windows devices affected by the update.
After explaining the issue to the masses, Shaw said that his second priority was ensuring that reporters covering it were doing so accurately. Some of that effort took place publically, but much of it occurred behind the scenes, he said.
He also stated that the outage is a complicated issue that’s difficult for people who aren’t engineers to understand. Some attributed it to vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s software security, though Shaw maintained that the security issue lied with a vendor, not Microsoft itself.
A defect in a Windows content update from software company CrowdStrike caused the outage, according to CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz, who posted on Friday that a fix was deployed and that customers should communicate with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels.
Shaw also confirmed that a CrowdStrike update brought down Windows systems globally, and that Microsoft was supporting customers in recovering operations
While many lambasted CrowdStrike for the error, others stated that Microsoft failed to show empathy, despite the issue not directly stemming from the company.
Jeremy Tunis, PR and stakeholder engagement advisor at Lyssn AI, said in a LinkedIn post that Kurtz’s statement is “missing is any clear contrition” and “commitment to conduct an investigation to figure out what happened,” while Microsoft’s statement is “severely lacking on empathy, scale awareness and steps they are taking to make lives better for their customers.”
Systems across transportation, healthcare, business operations and emergency services were rendered inoperable, causing planes to sit idly in airports and medical procedures to be delayed.
On Friday, Kurtz made a second X post, stating “We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.”
A third post from Kurtz read “As this incident is resolved, you have my commitment to provide full transparency on how this occurred and the steps we’re taking to prevent anything like this from happening again.”
On Sunday, CrowdStrike posted “Of the approximately 8.5 million Windows devices that were impacted, a significant number are back online and operational.”
Social media users, communicators and business leaders largely criticized Kurtz’s initial statement as overly corporate and failing to apologize and take accountability for the error.
CrowdStrike CEO is getting pummeled for his response to the global outage.
— Lulu Cheng Meservey (@lulumeservey) July 19, 2024
Why everyone hates it:
1) WEAPONS-GRADE CORPO SPEAK
Let’s be clear. Legalese doublespeak is designed to dodge and obfuscate rather than inform or communicate. This statement was obviously written by a… pic.twitter.com/oLua908QR2
Translation from corporate-speak:
— Chris Bakke (@ChrisJBakke) July 19, 2024
“CrowdStrike broke your business today but please remember YOU are the problem - not us. We won’t provide any helpful information here. Remember: You should actually be apologizing to us for using computers in your business. Awwwwwww boo hoo -…
Missing we screwed up and we are sorry
— David Hajek (@hajekd) July 19, 2024
Businesses also took to social media to communicate how the outage affected them.
Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5:00 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.
— americanair (@AmericanAir) July 19, 2024
A third-party outage is impacting computer systems, including at United and many other organizations worldwide.
— United Airlines (@united) July 19, 2024
As we work to fully restore these systems, some flights are resuming. Many customers traveling today may experience delays.
We have issued a waiver to make it easier…
A major worldwide software outage has affected many of our systems at Mass General Brigham, as well as many major businesses across the country. Due to the severity of this issue, all previously scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and medical visits are cancelled today. pic.twitter.com/atf4WhuD2c
— Mass General Brigham (@MassGenBrigham) July 19, 2024
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