CrowdStrike Apologises For Global Outage, Offers $10 Uber Eats Voucher

CrowdStrike has issued $10 Uber Eats gift cards to contractors in response to a major software failure that caused widespread disruptions last week, according to TechCrunch. Fortune 500 firms have suffered severe financial losses as a result of the error, which on Friday caused the "blue screen of death" to appear on millions of Windows-based computers.

CrowdStrike apologised in an email to contractors for the extra work brought on by the event on July 19. A promo coupon for Uber Eats was included in the communication, which purportedly came from Daniel Bernard, chief business officer of CrowdStrike.

However, a few recipients stated that the codes were quickly disabled. A UK contractor reported getting a gift card worth 7.75 pounds, or almost $10. 

Following TechCrunch's initial story on the gift cards, a CrowdStrike representative clarified that the vouchers were meant for contractors rather than customers.

Also Read | CrowdStrike Says 'Bug In Content Validator" Caused Global Tech Outage

"We did send these to our teammates and partners who have been helping customers through this situation. Uber flagged it as fraud because of its high usage rates," CrowdStrike spokesperson Kevin Benacci said in an email.

On July 19, a technical glitch affected nearly 8.5 million Microsoft devices. A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, one of the largest operators in the industry, triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking.

On Wednesday the company said that the breakdown stemmed from a flaw in its test software.

"Due to a bug in the content validator, one of two (updates) passed validation despite containing problematic content data," said CrowdStrike.