Microsoft, CrowdStrike IT Outage Could Cost Companies Millions

An IT outage allegedly originating from a cybersecurity firm has temporarily sent the world into a downward spiral.

• Reports started coming in about technical issues at airports, just for media outlets and banks to join them minutes later.
• Airports are trying to take care of business manually, but they have been overwhelmed.

A faulty update to CrowdStrike’s software has allegedly caused an IT outage to hit airlines, media, and banks, and in some cases stock exchange markets, worldwide.

Earlier today, reports started coming in of a mass IT outage affecting US airlines, forcing them to ground their flights. However, as the minutes ticked on, those reports started coming in from all corners of the world.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike told NBC that a faulty update had caused the global IT outage and that they are in the process of rectifying the situation. Before this confirmation came in, many companies across the world, including American Airlines and Sky News, reported technical issues, most of which were linked to Microsoft products.

The tech giant has confirmed that its cloud services suffered an outage earlier in the day but are now mostly restored. It is still unclear if the Microsoft outage is linked to the faulty update.

The faulty update caused laptops in the Philippines to start showing Windows systems’ infamous “blue screen of death.” Airlines, broadcasters, telecom firms, and banks reported an IT outage.

Train companies in the UK disclosed that they were “unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations.” The IT outage also affected their other systems. Washington DC has also suspended all trains until further notice.

Berlin airport took to X to inform customers of check-in delays.

Spain also reported issues at airports across the country.

Sky News was forced off the air before coming back on, just to be forced off again. As of writing this article, it has gone back up.

A spokesperson for Telstra, an Australian telco, claimed the global issues are disrupting their systems.

At Scotland’s Edinburg airport, a computer error caused departure screens to malfunction. Screens throughout the facility appeared to freeze.

Airports grounded most if not all flights, with reports starting from the U.S., through Australia, and into the rest of the continents. UK’s Ryanair, for example, called the situation a disruption resulting from a third-party IT outage. The US’s United, Delta, and American Airlines have also been brought to a stop, and Japan and India’s airports were also impacted.

Despite being operative, the London Stock Exchange reported technical issues with its RNS news services.

In certain parts of the world, people were unable to reach emergency services. U.S. Alaska police took to Facebook to inform citizens that “many 911 and non-emergency call centers are not working correctly across the state.”

Not only was the airport in New Zealand affected by the IT outage but also its parliament.

The outage appears to have also hit the healthcare sector, as Grimethorpe Surgery posted on X that they do not have access to their clinical system. Some German hospitals have also cancelled all non-emergency surgeries.

The Baltic Hub, Poland’s largest container terminal, has asked companies not to send containers to the port, as its infrastructure is hit by the IT outage. The company said, “Pleased be advised that we are struggling at the Baltic Hub with a global Microsoft operating system outage that is hampering terminal operations.”

To regain some control over the situation, Delhi airport had to go manually, asking passengers to manually fill in information forms. However, many remain overwhelmed.

The Paris Olympic IT system has also been affected by the outage, just five days before the grand ceremony.

As of writing this article, Lebanon’s Beirut Rafik Hariri International airport is operational again after being down for close to 30 minutes. As for Dubai’s airport, operations remained normal.

Should We Leave the World Behind?

Watching all these services, emergency and otherwise, go down live gives the onlooker a sense of foreboding. It’s the same feeling that overwhelmed us all in 2012, as we anticipated the world to end.

If the reports are true, that this massive (although the word feels too small as a descriptor) IT outage was caused by a faulty update, then a high-tech future might become the most unwanted thing in the world. Tech companies and all their affiliates should steel themselves for monumental pushback on their advancement efforts.

If the reports are false, and it is a cyberattack that targeted CrowdStrike and temporarily paralyzed the world, then we are in deeper waters than we ever thought. Some observers think that there’s a pattern in the countries that have been affected by the IT outage. So far, we have the US, the UK, Australia, India, Japan, France, Germany, and Spain, among others. All these countries are NATO members and strong NATO allies. Coincidently, Russia has not reported any issues yet.

Stay tuned as the events still unravel.

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