This cybersecurity disaster made Google’s top 10 searches of 2024

Google recently released its Year in Search 2024, with a wide range of different topics reaching the top 10. Among major events like the Olympics and the U.S. presidential election is one name you may have forgotten about, but will remember for the chaos it caused. I’m talking, of course, about CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm founded in 2011 in Austin, Texas — the same one that was (at least partially) responsible for the largest IT outage ever.

So, what did CrowdStrike do exactly to earn its spot on the list? In a nutshell, it’s responsible for the faulty code that meddled with core functions on the affected Windows computers. The error displayed messages on users’ PCs saying: “Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart.” The result was downed PCs across the country, affecting a wide range of industries, but most notably, airports. From an IT perspective, this was a nightmare scenario.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologized, saying in a post on X: “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.”

Delta was one of the affected airlines that suffered, and it even claimed that the extended outage the airline suffered was the cybersecurity company’s fault. CrowdStrike pushed back and said the $500 million lawsuit was meritless.

The source problem lay in the company’s Falcon Platform, which runs compatible with classic antivirus software on your PC. If the outage wasn’t enough, CrowdStrike also came under fire for presenting Uber Eats vouchers worth $10 as an apology.

CrowdStrike ranked 7th in the top ten news searches for 2024, while the U.S. Election took the top spot. Other searches that were also in the top 10 are Monkeypox, Menendez brothers, Trump shot, Iran Rafah, excessive heat, Olympics, Hurricane Milton, and the typhoon.