On July 19, local time, a software update of the US security software giant CrowdStrike caused the "largest IT failure in history", and millions of Microsoft systems around the world crashed, causing global enterprises and users to be unable to access normally, and the normal operation of almost all industries was impacted. The impact of this accident includes but is not limited to:

• Air traffic: 1,848 flights were canceled worldwide, and the affected areas included the United States, Australia, India and Canada. The paralysis of the flight system has caused air transportation to be blocked, and it may take several weeks to return to normal.
• Medical system: The procedures of some hospitals and medical institutions have been canceled or interrupted, affecting the normal provision of medical services.
• Retail logistics: Supermarket automatic cash registers and logistics systems have been affected, resulting in interruptions in retail and logistics services. Large companies such as McDonald's, United Airlines and London Stock Exchange Group have announced different problems in contacting customer service.

This accident not only caused huge economic losses, but may also have a more far-reaching impact on network stability and security.

According to official explanations, this large-scale system crash was caused by the failure of its Falcon sensor software update. The Falcon sensor is the main product of CrowdStrike, the protagonist we are going to discuss. So what kind of company is this, and why is it so powerful?

Introduction to CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike is a company that provides online security solutions, focusing on providing a cloud-based endpoint protection platform. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in California, USA, CrowdStrike's main product is the Falcon platform, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to detect, prevent and respond to network threats. At present, CrowdSrike provides cloud-delivered protection across endpoints, cloud workloads, identities and data, threat intelligence, managed security services, IT operations management, threat hunting, zero-trust identity protection and log management to customers around the world.

CrowdSrike has a great credibility in detecting and defending against advanced network attacks. Its products are used by a series of the world's largest cloud service providers such as Microsoft and Amazon AWS. Their service providers also include world-renowned banks, healthcare and energy companies. CrowdStrike has a wide range of business and services, and is highly praised in the industry.

CrowdStrike's stock price has plummeted. Is it time to buy?

CrowdStrike's stock fell sharply on Friday after the outage, posting its worst one-day performance in nearly 19 months.

Source: uSMART SG

However, some analysts believe this is a good time to buy CrowdStrike. Barclays analyst Saket Kalia maintained a buy rating on CrowdStrike and a target price of $400. According to TipRanks data, the analyst's total win rate in the past year was 57.8%, with a total average return of 13.4%.

In addition, the ARK ETF managed by the famous investor Cathie Wood bought CrowdStrike against the market. On July 19, local time, Cathie Wood's Ark Investment bought 38,595 shares of CrowdStrike worth about $13.24 million against the trend through its ARKW and ARKF ETFs. In addition to increasing its holdings in CrowdStrike, ARK also increased its holdings in software development platform GitLab Inc, buying 38,519 shares through the ARKW ETF, worth just over $2 million. On the selling side, ARK reduced its holdings in several companies, including continuing to sell Coinbase shares, and further dumped nearly $4.39 million worth of Tesla shares following Thursday's sale.

Can the problem be solved? CrowStrike responded like this

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said the crux of the problem has been found and the company has deployed a fix. In addition to Mac and Linux machines, any Windows desktop or laptop that is down due to the update needs to be updated again.

According to a communication between CrowdStrike and a customer cited by the media, CrowdStrike's technical support team suggested that the affected system may need to be restarted up to 15 times.

The extent of the economic losses caused by the failure and who will bear these losses will not be known for some time. It is reported that most software vendors are not legally responsible for damages caused by their programs, which are licensed rather than sold. But they usually have service agreements with their largest customers and may need to help with remediation, give discounts or other compensation.

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