A massive IT outage has left businesses and essential services worldwide grappling with significant disruptions. Financial institutions, hospitals, airlines, and media organizations have been severely impacted following an issue with an update from cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) on Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows.
CrowdStrike confirmed the disruption early Friday, attributing it to a defect in its latest technology update. “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed,” said George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, on social media. He clarified that the problem affected only Windows hosts, while Mac and Linux systems remained unaffected.
Kurtz then apologized for the systems update, telling NBC, “We’re deeply sorry.”
“The system was sent an update, and that update had a software bug in it and caused an issue with the Microsoft operating system,” he explained on NBC Today.
He clarified that the update was a standard procedure intended to mitigate security risks but acknowledged that a thorough investigation is necessary to understand the failure.
“We have to go back and see what happened here. But if there’s a negative interaction with the way some of these operating systems work—in this particular case, it was only a Microsoft operating system that was impacted—you’ll see a reaction like this,” he said.
Air travel chaos
Airports and airlines were among the hardest hit by the outage. Major carriers such as American Airlines, Delta, and United were forced to halt departures, leading to widespread delays and cancellations.
“Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation,” American Airlines said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) monitored the situation closely and assisted with ground stops to manage the chaos.
Passengers worldwide faced long queues and significant delays, with many airlines resorting to manual check-in processes. Social media was flooded with complaints and images from frustrated travelers.
“We’re aware of a technology issue with a vendor that is impacting multiple carriers. American is working with the vendor to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” read a post from American Airlines on social media platform X.
Healthcare systems offline
Healthcare services were severely disrupted. Hospitals in Germany, such as the University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein, canceled elective procedures and closed outpatient units due to the outage. The hospital assured that care for patients already admitted and emergency services were maintained despite the challenges.
Similar disruptions were reported in the U.S., where hospitals found themselves unable to access critical patient information, leading to delays in treatment and care.
Satnam Narang, senior staff researcher at cybersecurity firm Tenable, underscored the severity of the situation, stating, “Systems are offline, which means patient records can’t be accessed and medication can’t be administered properly to patients.”
Britain’s Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford has declared a “critical incident” due to external IT issues affecting its services and the Varian IT system used for radiotherapy treatments.
This designation occurs when hospitals face extreme pressures. While radiotherapy services are now operational, the hospital has had to reschedule this morning’s appointments and warned that disruptions may extend into next week.
Financial services and retail disruptions
In the U.K., retailers like Waitrose temporarily halted contactless payments, causing inconvenience to customers. Other retailers, including the Co-op and bakery chain Gail’s, resorted to cash-only transactions. Social media was abuzz with images of supermarket shelves labeled with “cash-only” signs. Waitrose later confirmed that all payment methods had resumed following a brief suspension and that its John Lewis stores were not impacted.
The London Stock Exchange faced its own set of challenges. Technical issues prevented the publication of news on its website, adding to the growing list of affected services.
“We are currently experiencing a 3rd party global technical issue, preventing news from being published on www.londonstockexchange.com,” the LSEG said in a notice on its website. This disruption impacted trading activities and real-time updates critical to financial markets.
Media outlets affected
Media organizations were not immune to the outage. Sky News and BBC’s children’s channel CBBC experienced outages, with Sky News temporarily unable to broadcast live.
“We apologize for the interruption to this broadcast. We hope to restore the transmission of Sky News shortly,” read a message on their channel.
The broadcaster resumed its service later in the morning but continued to operate without full capabilities.
Largest IT outage
Cybersecurity experts have weighed in on the severity of the outage. Troy Hunt, a cybersecurity researcher, described it as “the largest IT outage in history.” Tom Lysemose Hansen, CTO of Promon, highlighted the complexity of resolving the issue, noting that affected customers might need to “break into their own systems to get everything back online by logging into the admin console and booting their systems in safe mode.”
He further explained, “The challenge here is that security software, because it’s doing its job to protect organizations, has to have more privileged access to these machines. So, while people may be seeing these as Windows failures, they’re actually related to a faulty or bad update from those security softwares.”
Narang emphasized the unprecedented scale of the disruption. “We’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s very far-reaching, and we’re still just in the beginnings of this right now,” he said.
Government and international response
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated that German institutions are working with international partners to address the outage affecting air travel, banking, and other sectors.
German insurer Allianz confirmed that the outage was impacting employees’ ability to log into their systems, causing significant operational disruptions.
“We are currently experiencing a major outage that is impacting employees’ ability to log into their computers,” Allianz said in a statement.
In the United States, a spokesperson for the National Security Council told CNBC that they were “aware of the incident and are looking into the issue and impacts.” The council is working closely with affected organizations to mitigate the disruption.
The IT outage has shown the vulnerability of modern digital infrastructure, affecting a wide range of services globally. Microsoft confirmed that its cloud services were restored, but many customers continued to face issues. The impact on Microsoft users was severe, with many experiencing the dreaded “blue screen of death” error message.
Information for this briefing was found via CNBC, Yahoo News, and the sources mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
