CrowdStrike glitch affects US federal agencies to varying degrees

US federal agencies were among those reeling from a massive technology outage on July 19 after a flawed software update by CrowdStrike disrupted global computer networks.

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Like employees around the world, some staff at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) were met with a Windows error screen – dubbed “the blue screen of death” – when they tried to sign in to their computers on the morning of July 19.

Justice Department officials were working on a fix but did not know when that would come, according to a message that the DOJ sent to staff. In the meantime, it said, employees could still access emails and communications through their phones and iPads.

“The Justice Department alerted users early this morning that the department is among businesses and government CrowdStrike customers worldwide affected,” a spokesperson told Bloomberg in an e-mail. The department’s chief information officer was “actively troubleshooting workarounds” on July 19 while the software maker tried to resolve the problem.

Not all users were affected, the spokesperson added, but “for those that were, the department has been remediating the issue and getting our affected devices back online”.

A spokesperson for the FBI said the agency was aware of the situation and declined to comment further.

The ripple effect of the outage was felt elsewhere in the US government to varying degrees. At the State Department, a help desk service was “down temporarily and restored”, a spokesperson said.