Massive Tech Outage Grounds Flights, Knocks Out Banks, Businesses Worldwide, Media Companies and Emergency Services

A tech outage knocked out operations for banks, media companies and emergency services, and forced airlines to ground flights.

A massive tech outage swept the globe, knocking out operations for banks, media companies and emergency services and forcing airlines to ground flights, exposing the fragility and interdependence of global digital infrastructure.

This is reportedly one of the biggest cyber outages in history.

UPDATE from the Wall Street Journal:

A single update from cybersecurity-software company CrowdStrike caused outages for millions of users of Microsoft Windows devices worldwide. CrowdStrike’s CEO said in a post on X that the issue had been identified and a fix had been deployed, adding that “this is not a security incident or cyberattack.”

🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Global Technical Systems Hit by Massive Malfunctions 🌐💥

Reports indicate that massive malfunctions have struck technical systems worldwide, raising suspicions of one of the largest cyber-attacks in history.

• British Sky News channel suspends broadcast due… pic.twitter.com/yftjkJiAKD

— Mariam Robly | مريم روبلى (@MariamRobly) July 19, 2024

Major IT Outage Grounds Flights, Hits Banks and Businesses Worldwide

CrowdStrike update causes device outages for millions of users of Microsoft Windows devices

By Gareth Vipers and Sam Schechner, Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2024:

A massive tech outage swept the globe, knocking out operations for banks, media companies and emergency services and forcing airlines to ground flights, exposing the fragility and interdependence of global digital infrastructure.

A single update from cybersecurity-software company CrowdStrike CRWD , a major provider of malware and virus protection to a large array of companies, caused outages for millions of users of Microsoft MSFT -0.71%decrease; red down pointing triangle

Windows devices worldwide.

Major airlines including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines halted departures, according to advisories issued by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Windows computers and tablets crashed in countries from the U.S. to China and Australia, with reports of forced restarts of devices spreading across social media. Many affected machines were unable to restart, instead showing a blue error screen sometimes called the “blue screen of death.”

CrowdStrike Chief Executive George Kurtz said in a post on X that the issue had been identified and a fix had been deployed, adding that “this is not a security incident or cyberattack.”

That one update from a single company could plunge so many companies—from airline check-in desks to consultants’ conference rooms—into a digital dark age serves as a stark warning of the economy’s technological dependence, and the dangers of too much consolidation around the same tools.

Multiple financial institutions and corporations reported blue-screen errors that appeared related to the CrowdStrike error.

One of CrowdStrike’s main services is called Falcon, which monitors a company’s machines for hacking attempts, viruses and other threats.

The Austin-based company told customers in a status update seen by The Wall Street Journal that the problem was with a software change it had pushed in Falcon out to clients’ computers. The company said its engineers had undone the change but clients would need to use a workaround to download a fix to affected computers.
CrowdStrike Chief Executive George Kurtz said a fix had been deployed. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News

Some affected users may be back up and running soon but for others it could take weeks depending on the system in use, said Simo Kohonen, founder of Finland-based network security company Defused. “The fix CrowdStrike has given is quite manual and may be difficult, in some cases, to deploy at large scale,” he said.

CrowdStrike shares were down nearly 14% in premarket trading. Microsoft was down 2.4%.

Microsoft said the CrowdStrike error was separate from a problem it faced overnight with cloud services including Microsoft 365 apps. That outage prompted thousands of users to report problems to Downdetector.com, a website that tracks service disruptions.

“We acknowledge the impact this can have on customers, and we are working to restore services for those still experiencing disruptions as quickly as possible,” a Microsoft spokesman said. “Separately we’re aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform,” the spokesman added, referring to the CrowdStrike outage.

In the U.S., many 911 and non-emergency call centers weren’t working properly, according to the Alaska State Troopers.

Frontier Airlines had late Thursday blamed a Microsoft technical outage for forcing it to implement a ground stoppage, leading to flight delays and cancellations.