A major IT outage swept across numerous industries late Thursday and into Friday, causing widespread disruption to airlines, retail, banking, healthcare systems, and even broadcasters. The culprit, as it turned out, was a faulty software update rolled out by Texas-based cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike for its Microsoft Windows hosts.
In a social media post at 5:45 a.m. ET on Friday, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz acknowledged the issue, stating that his company was “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.” He emphasized that the outage was “not a security incident or cyberattack.” Kurtz assured users that the problem had been “identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed.” He further advised customers to “ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels” and assured them that their team was “fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”
Microsoft, initially acknowledging the problem at around 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, posted on social media that they were “investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.” As the night progressed, it became apparent that the issue was affecting multiple services globally.
In the United States, major airlines including Delta, United, and American Airlines experienced flight groundings, with international carriers also facing disruptions. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated that it was “closely monitoring” the IT outage and that “several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops until the issue is resolved.” Even Sydney Airport in Australia experienced the dreaded blue screen of death on their flight displays.
By 6:45 a.m. ET on Friday, Microsoft announced on social media that the “underlying cause has been fixed,” but they cautioned that “residual impact is continuing to affect some Microsoft 365 apps and services.”
