A software update caused chaos on computer systems worldwide on Friday, affecting flights, broadcasters, banking, and healthcare services. The trigger appeared to be an update to a product offered by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD.O), impacting customers using Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) Windows Operating System. Microsoft later confirmed that the issue had been resolved.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz announced on social media platform X that the company was “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts” and that a fix was being deployed. Kurtz clarified, “This is not a security incident or cyberattack.
Early Friday, major U.S. airlines, including American Airlines (AAL.O), Delta Airlines (DAL.N), and United Airlines (UAL.O), grounded flights. Other carriers and airports globally reported delays and disruptions.
Financial institutions from Australia to India and Germany reported disruptions, and traders across markets faced challenges executing transactions. One trader commented, “We are having the mother of all global market outages.”
In the UK, medical booking systems were offline, according to multiple reports by medical officials on X. Sky News, a major news broadcaster, went off air, apologizing for being unable to transmit live. Manchester United announced on X that it had to postpone a scheduled ticket release.
Microsoft’s cloud unit Azure acknowledged the issue affecting virtual machines running Windows OS and the CrowdStrike Falcon agent, causing a “restarting state” amid the global outage. A Microsoft spokesperson said, “We’re aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming.”
CrowdStrike alerted clients at 0530 GMT on Friday that its “Falcon Sensor” software was causing Microsoft Windows to crash, displaying a blue screen, known as the “Blue Screen of Death.” The company also provided a manual workaround.
Over half of Fortune 500 companies use CrowdStrike software, according to a promotional video released by the U.S. firm this year. Ciaran Martin, Professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and former head of the UK National Cyber Security Centre, said, “This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core Internet infrastructure.
The outages had far-reaching effects. Airports in Singapore, Hong Kong, and India reported manual passenger check-ins due to the outage. Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and airline Iberia confirmed they were affected but had resumed electronic check-ins. Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) reported disrupted operations.
While companies gradually restored services, analysts considered the potential impact of what one called the industry’s most significant outage. Ajay Unni, CEO of StickmanCyber, one of Australia’s largest cybersecurity services companies, said, “IT security tools are all designed to ensure that companies can continue to operate in the worst-case scenario of a data breach, so to be the root cause of a global IT outage is an unmitigated disaster.
