A global tech outage was disrupting operations in multiple industries on Friday, with airlines halting flights, some broadcasters off-air and everything from banking to health care hit by system problems.
According to an alert sent by global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike to its clients and reviewed by Reuters, the company’s Falcon Sensor software is causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known informally as the “blue screen of death.”
The company told NBC News that the outage is related to an issue in the most recent update, which is now being rolled back. The problem crashed Windows machines and servers, sending them into a loop of recovery so that they couldn’t restart.
“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” company CEO George Kurtz said in a message posted on social media. “Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”
The issue affected Microsoft 365 apps and services, and escalating disruptions continued hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing it. The website DownDectector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, as well as airlines.
Microsoft 365 posted on X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”
Several airlines affected
In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration said the airlines United, American, Delta and Allegiant had all been grounded. Travellers at Los Angeles International Airport slept on a jetway floor, using backpacks and other luggage for pillows, due to a delayed United flight to Dulles International Airport early on Friday. Airlines, railways and television stations in the United Kingdom were being disrupted by the computer issues.
Airline traffic was especially affected, though the impacts were variable. A spokesperson from Toronto’s Pearson Airport told CBC News the impacts varied “airline to airline.”
Porter Airlines, which operates flights across Canada and to some U.S. locations, said all flights would be cancelled until at least noon ET on Friday. The company said just after 6 a.m. that its call centre agents did not have access to reservation or rebooking information, and it’s directing customers to its website for updates.
“Any passengers needing to cancel travel plans as a direct result of the systems issue will be offered refunds,” said Porter. “Normal flight change fees are also being waived.”
Montreal-Trudeau International Airport told CBC News it is experiencing flight delays and that U.S. customs officials for a time could not process passengers heading to American destinations due to the disruption but that “the problem has been resolved and passenger processing is gradually resuming.”
Edinburgh Airport said the system outage meant waiting times were longer than usual. London’s Stansted Airport said some airline check-in services were being completed manually, but flights were still operating.
Widespread problems were reported at airports in India, affecting thousands, while Hong Kong’s Airport Authority said in a statement that the outage was affecting some airlines at the city’s airport and they had switched to manual check-in.
Tokyo, Amsterdam, Berlin and several Spanish airports reporting problems with their systems and delays.
French airports said the issues were airline-specific and the Paris Olympics organizing committee said on Friday the impact of the global outage on its operations was limited and ticket sales were unaffected ahead of the Summer Games which begin in exactly one week.
Zurich Airport, the busiest in Switzerland, suspended landings on Friday morning but said flights headed there that were already in the air were still allowed to land. It said that several airlines, handling agents and other companies at the airport were affected, and that check-in had to be done manually in some cases, but that the airport’s own systems were running.
Broadcasters, hospitals report issues
News outlets in Australia reported that airlines, telecommunications providers and banks, and media broadcasters were disrupted as they lost access to computer systems.
Sky News, one of Britain’s major news broadcasters was off air, apologizing for being unable to transmit live.
The CBC has experienced some issues with automated broadcasting processes, affecting control room operations, cameras and graphics.
Australia appeared to be severely affected by the issue. Outages reported on the site DownDetector included the banks NAB, Commonwealth and Bendigo, and the airlines Virgin Australia and Qantas, as well as internet and phone providers such as Telstra.
Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) said a global IT outage was affecting its appointment and patient record system, but that it hadn’t seen any impact on critical emergency services.
CrowdStrike is among the most popular cybersecurity companies, counting more than 20,000 subscription customers around the world. Over half of Fortune 500 companies used CrowdStrike software, the U.S. firm said in a promotional video this year.
The company’s shares fell more than 10 per cent in pre-market trading.