A massive technology outage has thrown businesses and institutions in multiple countries into chaos, disrupting airports, airlines, rail companies, government services, banks, stock exchanges, supermarkets, telecoms, health systems, and media outlets.
The disruption stemmed from an update to a product offered by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which caused machines running the Microsoft Windows operating system to crash. Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reported from London that a mandatory software update by CrowdStrike went “horribly wrong.”
The company identified the issue as a “content deployment problem” with its Falcon sensor product, causing Windows terminals to display the dreaded “blue screen of death,” locking users out of their operating systems.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz assured on Friday that the company was “actively working” with affected customers and clarified that this was not a security incident or cyberattack.
Microsoft announced that the “underlying cause” of the global outage had been “fixed,” but residual impacts continued to affect some Office 365 apps and services.
The Federal Aviation Administration reported that major airlines in the United States, including Delta, United, and American Airlines, were grounded on Friday morning due to a communication issue.
Airports in Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Spain also reported disruptions.
Sydney airport’s flight information screens went blank, causing delays, while Melbourne airport’s check-in procedures for some airlines were affected.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and all airports in Spain experienced significant disruptions as well.
The team behind Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell appeared to have encountered the same PC issues that airlines and banking services have been experiencing this morning – at least according to an image doing the rounds on social media.
It shows Mercedes team members in t-shirts emblazoned with Crowdstrike’s logo, whilst apparently contending with the same blue screen of death their update has wrought on many PCs.
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Credit – Al Jazeera, BBC