Microsoft CrowdStrike outage causes IT nightmare at airports, banks, hospitals worldwide

Microsoft experienced a massive, ongoing IT outage Friday morning, impacting airports, airlines, banks, hospitals and broadcasters worldwide. The Microsoft outage affected thousands of Windows PCs, which many businesses and organizations rely on as part of their critical internet infrastructure. Perhaps most troubling, several U.S. states reported that their 911 emergency response centers were affected.

While the original cause of the outage has since been fixed by Microsoft and its partner CrowdStrike (learn how to fix your Windows PC experiencing the CrowdStrike blue screen here), many services and businesses are still affected, including hospitals and flights.

Microsoft first said on X that it was aware of an issue impacting people’s ability to access 365 services late Thursday. In an update issued around 1 a.m. PT (4 a.m. ET), the company said“Multiple services continue to see improvements in availability as our mitigation actions progress.” The company did not immediately respond to request for further comment. In an updateAccording to the report, some people solved the problem by restarting their computers up to 15 times.

The outage, which also took down the London Stock Exchange, has been blamed on a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which protects many Windows PCs and services around the world. In a statement Friday morning, CrowdStrike said the issue had been “identified, isolated and a fix implemented.” It outlined steps people could take to fix their PCs. in his statement.

“This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” the company said.

Read more: Stuck During the Global Outage? See if Your Credit Card Has These Travel Protections and Insurances

The last time there was such a widespread internet outage was when a service called Fastly went offline in 2021. It’s a reminder of how much of the internet is supported by shared infrastructure, making it vulnerable to widespread problems like this. While many companies’ stock prices fell after Friday’s outage, it also impacted many people on an individual level, from disrupting vacation plans to preventing access to emergency services.

Are hospitals affected by the outage?

Hospitals across the U.S. reported problems with their IT systems Friday morning, affecting many patients. “A major global software outage has affected many of our systems at Mass General Brigham, as well as many large companies across the country,” a spokesperson for Massachusetts General Hospital said told Newsweek“Due to the seriousness of this issue, all previously scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures and medical visits are cancelled today.”

In the UK, medical services have also been hit, including the National Health Service appointment booking system and pharmacies, which are struggling to accept payments.

Does 112 work?

Across the US, state troopers reported that 911 lines were out of service starting in 1999. AlaskaUnconfirmed reports suggest some lines in Minnesota, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio and New Hampshire were also affected.

Many people reported problems via the Down Detector Websitewith outages appearing to peak around midnight PT. If you live in one of the affected states, contact your local state police or police department for alternate emergency numbers. Alaska State Troopers issued an update later Friday, saying that their service had been restored as of 4:23 a.m. local time.

Television channels around the world have been affected by the outage, with Sky News in the UK broadcasting from a telephone after its studio equipment broke down. The Paris Olympics organising committee also said it had been affected by the outage but had contingency plans in place.

Are there still flights on the ground?

Airports from New Zealand to the UK reported problems in the early hours of Friday morning, particularly with their scanning technology, which failed to register passengers’ boarding passes. In India and Northern Ireland, departure boards and boarding passes were handwritten. Airlines, including European budget carrier Ryanair, reported problems with online check-in. Ryanair advised all passengers to arrive at least three hours early for their flight.

In the US, the Federal Aviation Authority has a number of flights grounded from American Airlines, United and Delta. Many U.S. airlines have not yet released statements on how they expect the day to unfold, but it may be wise for passengers planning to fly out of U.S. airports today to contact their airlines before they depart and also arrive earlier than normal to allow extra time to check in.

Delta

The major airlines operating in the US have been issuing regular updates, with Delta saying in a statement: “Delta has resumed some flights after a supplier technology issue impacted several airlines and businesses around the world. The issue necessitated a pause in Delta’s global flight schedule this morning while it was addressed.” The airline added that more cancellations and delays were expected on Friday, but that a travel waiver had been issued, allowing customers who were scheduled to travel today to rebook their flights at a low or no cost, depending on the date.

American Airlines

In a statement about X, American Airlines said: “We are aware of a technology issue with a vendor that is impacting multiple airlines. American is working with the vendor to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.” In an updated statement to CNET, it said that as of 5 a.m. ET, it had managed to “safely restore our operation.”

United Airlines

United Airlines said in a statement that “a third-party software outage is impacting computer systems worldwide, including at United.” The airline initially said all flights would be held at their departure points, but was able to resume flights later Friday morning.

“We are resuming some flights, but expect disruptions to service throughout Friday,” a company spokesperson said. “We have issued a waiver to make it easier for customers to change their travel plans through United.com or the United app.”

KLM

Dutch airline KLM said the outage had made it “impossible” to handle flights and that the company had to largely suspend operations until the problem was resolved. In an update on X, the airline added: “Customers should expect delays and cancellations. We urge passengers to stay away from the airport if their flight is not departing or is severely delayed. We realise this is very inconvenient for customers, especially as the busy summer season has just started.”

Work is underway to resume operations and passengers are asked to monitor KLM.com or the airline’s app for updates.

Here’s how to track your flight status directly through text messages on your iPhone, and the three steps to take if your flight is canceled or delayed.

What is CrowdStrike?

The company at the root of the Microsoft outage isn’t actually Microsoft at all. The source of the problem has been identified as a faulty update released by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

Founded 11 years ago in Austin, Texas, CrowdStrike is often called upon by organizations after major cybersecurity breaches to investigate what went wrong. These include the Sony Pictures hack in 2014 and several events targeting the Democratic National Committee between 2015 and 2016.

Many enterprises around the world rely on CrowdStrike for critical cloud workload protections. In this case, CrowdStrike released an update for Windows PCs (it confirmed that Mac and Linux users were not affected) that contained a single defect. PCs displayed a “blue screen of death,” indicating a critical error, and were forced into a bootloop, making them unable to boot.

Making matters worse, there doesn’t appear to be a universal, easy fix for the problem. Most affected PCs will need to be manually reset to a previous point in time, one at a time. Until they can be powered back on, they won’t be able to receive the latest update from CloudStrike. “We’re directing customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide full and continuous updates on our website,” a CrowdStrike spokesperson said.

“We further encourage organizations to ensure they communicate with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels,” they added. “Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the safety and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”

In an interview with NBC On Friday, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said the company “deeply apologizes for the impact we have caused to customers, travelers and everyone affected.”

On X, he confirmed that the outage was caused by an issue with a Falcon content update for Windows Hosts. “We are working with all affected customers to get their systems up and running again and to deliver the services their customers rely on,” he said.