On Friday, businesses around the world reported IT outages, including Windows “Blue Screen of Death” errors on computers, in what is already one of the most widespread IT outages in recent years. The outage, which many security experts blame on a CrowdStike update, has affected companies across a range of sectors, including airlines, banks, food chains, brokerages, news organizations and rail networks. The travel industry appears to be the most affected.
“We're aware of an issue impacting Windows devices caused by a third-party software platform update. We expect a resolution is available soon,” a Microsoft spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement.
Airlines and airports around the world, including in the US, Germany, UK, Singapore, Australia, India, Taiwan, China and Japan, have reported issues and delays with check-in systems.
In Britain, the London Stock Exchange reported disruptions to its services. Several British doctors said in X that the National Health Service's clinical computer system, which stores medical records and is used to schedule appointments, had been hit by an outage.
Some 911 and non-emergency call centers in the United States also appear to be affected, with many such call centers “not functioning properly across the state of Alaska,” according to a post from the Alaska State Police.
British news broadcaster Sky News suffered live broadcast disruptions this morning due to the outage, the company's chairman David Rose tweeted, and the New Zealand Herald reported that the issue also affected banking services in the country.
The issue has led many customers to report being unable to restart their computers. The outage came shortly after Microsoft confirmed a service issue with Microsoft 365 apps late Thursday that affected several airlines, including Delta and United Airlines. Microsoft's service status page said the issue was being resolved.
Notably, the outage does not appear to be the result of a cyberattack: Several companies and security experts have blamed security firm CrowdStrike, with Australian energy company AGL blaming the company's updates entirely, as the company's software is widely used across businesses to manage the security of Windows devices and servers.
A post on Crowdstrike's support forum acknowledged the issue, saying the company had received reports of crashes related to content updates. CrowdStrike confirmed that the crash reports it received were for Falcon Sensor, a cloud-based security service that offers “real-time threat detection, simplified management, and proactive threat hunting.”
According to CrowdStrike's website, its customers include approximately 60 percent of the Fortune 500 and more than half of the Fortune 1,000. The company serves eight of the top 10 financial services companies and an equal number of leading technology companies. It also has a broad and deep presence in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors, serving six and seven of the top 10 companies in those industries, respectively.
Screenshot of Crowdstrike post. Image courtesy of Crowdstike
The security company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A moderator on CrowdStrike's subreddit said the company was aware of “widespread reports” of blue screen errors occurring on devices with multiple versions of Windows. The company was investigating the cause, the message said.
CrowdStrike shares fell more than 20% in premarket trading on Friday. CrowdStrike's market capitalization was $83.48 billion as of Thursday's close.
This is a developing story, check back for updates. Ram Iyer contributed to this report.
Prague Airport is currently affected by an outage of the global check-in system used by many airlines, resulting in delays to some departing flights. pic.twitter.com/fFpXkMccXO
— Prague Airport (@PragueAirport) July 19, 2024
A Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage has shut down most of India's airports. Today I received my handwritten boarding pass for the first time 😅 pic.twitter.com/xsdnq1Pgjr
— Akshay Kothari (@akothari) July 19, 2024
Something very strange is happening right now. In the last few minutes I've been getting calls from several completely different outlets about Windows machines suddenly going into BSoD (Blue Screen of Death). Has anyone else seen this? It seems to go into recovery mode. pic.twitter.com/DxdLyA9BLA
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) July 19, 2024