CrowdStrike sent $10 Uber Eats gift cards to thank its beleaguered contractors who are helping to manage the fallout from a catastrophic software update that caused a global tech meltdown last week.
Millions of computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system were hit with the “blue screen of death” on Friday due to a CrowdStrike bug that left them unable to boot.
CrowdStrike has been trying to save the crisis, which is expected to cost Fortune companies $500 billion.
In an email to “CrowdStrike partners” — contractors involved in managing accounts for cybersecurity clients — the firm apologized for the “extra work the July 19 incident has caused.”
“To show our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!” said the email, which included a promotional code for Uber Eats and was reportedly sent on behalf of CrowdStrike’s chief business officer, Daniel Bernard.
Several X users posted that they had received a gift voucher from CrowdStrike, although some said the code appeared to have been taken offline and no longer worked.
“Two hours later the code is canceled and $10 is taken out of the Uber Eats account,” said another X user. “That’s a cool way to apologize to the partners.”
A UK-based user X who received the gift card said it was worth £7.75, or about $10.
The email was obtained by TechCrunch, which first reported on the gift cards.
A CrowdStrike spokesperson clarified that the gift cards were sent to contractors on its payroll, not customers.
“CrowdStrike did not send gift cards to clients or customers,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We sent these to our friends and partners who have helped customers in this situation. Uber called it a scam because of the high usage rates.”
Microsoft said about 8.5 million devices were likely affected during the meltdown, which stranded passengers at airports around the world and left some hospitals unable to function normally.
In a lengthy report published Wednesday, CrowdStrike explained that a bug in its quality control system had prevented it from identifying flawed data contained in a routine software update.
The update was part of CrowdStrike’s rapid response plan, which aims to update cybersecurity systems to combat new threats.
“I want to sincerely apologize directly to all of you for the outage,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a statement posted online last Friday. “All of CrowdStrike understand the gravity and impact of the situation.”
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