As the widespread Microsoft outage caused chaos around the world on Friday, disrupting flights, banks, media outlets and companies, a video featuring a man named Vincent Flibustier claiming to be behind the widespread outage has gone viral.
Flibustier, who claims to be a former Crowdstrike employee in the video, alleges that he made a small update to the company's system, which caused the global disruption.
In the video, Flibustier states:
"Hello, it was indeed definitely absolutely me who did the CrowdStrike modification that caused all this worldwide. It was my very first day on the job as a new system admin and I was very eager and excited. Let's say I actually made a small update to a line of code, optimised an update slightly a little bit and maybe I shouldn't have. I got fired so I was called in. Normally, I only work in the morning, but I worked in the morning, made a small update, and then went home. Then, they called me back today, telling me that I really need to come back. It really wasn't even to congratulate me. I thought it was as if it was so. Now, I'm just waiting for my termination documentation. They told me that you should never put an update into production without testing, especially not on a Friday, and I said, 'Well, it's not Friday; it was Thursday, and today is Friday.' But, you see, I had tested the update on my PC, and it was working."
Viewers in the comments section are sceptical, with many calling out the video as an AI-generated hoax. One user wrote, "Is this for real? No way you pushed the update to production without testing it in Stage first. This has to be a parody account!" Others questioned Flibustier's claim, asking if he was indeed the one behind the outage.
According to France TV, Flibustier is the founder of Nordpresse, a site halfway between a parody newspaper and a fake news factory.
A quick fact-check reveals that Flibustier's video, which has garnered more than one million views and thousands of likes, is a satirical video made for fun.
Moreover, there are discrepancies in a photo he posted, allegedly taken inside a Crowdstrike room. The image appears to be manipulated, with Flibustier's head seemingly out of frame. His fingers in the photo appear unusually small, leading him to jokingly comment in French, 'I made fingers with generative AI, looks like I have dwarf hands.'
Microsoft Outage
According to cybersecurity company Crowdstrike, the outage was caused by one of its updates, which it said affected Microsoft Windows devices. Escalating disruptions continued hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.
The website DownDectector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines.
