Businesses around the world are reporting IT outages, including Windows “blue screen of death” errors on their computers, in what has become one of the most common problems. Widespread IT disruptions in recent yearsThe service outage, linked to a software update from popular cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, has affected computers running Microsoft Windows at organisations across a range of sectors, including airlines, banks, retailers, brokerages, media companies and rail networks. The travel sector appears to be one of the hardest hit, according to online comments.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz confirmed in a post on X that a “flaw” in a content update for Windows hosts had caused the outage and Kurtz ruled out a cyberattack. He added that the company was implementing a fix and that Mac and Linux hosts were not affected.
“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers affected by a flaw discovered in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not affected,” Kurtz said on X.
“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been implemented. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide ongoing, comprehensive updates on our website. Additionally, we encourage organizations to make sure to reach out to CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers,” Kurtz said.
A post about CrowdStrike Support Forums (which can only be accessed with a login) also acknowledged the issue on Friday morning, saying the company had received reports of crashes related to a content update. CrowdStrike said the crash reports were “related to Falcon Sensor,” its cloud-based security service that it describes as “real-time threat detection, simplified management, and proactive threat hunting.”
A CrowdStrike moderator subreddit also said The company was aware of “widespread reports” of blue screen errors on Windows devices across multiple versions of its software. The company was investigating the cause, the message said.
The security company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Microsoft began noticing problems in the early hours of July 19. Service status page Current Notes: Microsoft 365 for consumers is available again. However, business applications are still experiencing disruptions depending on their Health status of the service for its cloud services for businesses.
“We are aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update to a third-party software platform. We anticipate this issue will be resolved in the near future,” a Microsoft spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement.
A Microsoft spokesperson said the earlier outage of the Microsoft 365 service overnight on July 18-19 was not related to the widespread outage caused by the CrowdStrike update.
There will be many questions to ask and answer about the resilience (or perhaps lack thereof) in cloud services, and in particular how a single update could bring everything around the world to such a standstill.
“In our view, cybersecurity products need to meet higher standards for reliability and security in customer deployments than other technology products because they are mission-critical and actively targeted by adversaries,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a research note Friday. “In some ways, we believe this will reinforce the barrier to entry in the industry and the need for best-in-class update, breakage and customer service protocols, ultimately favoring companies with scale.”
Airlines and airports in Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as Australia, China, Japan, India, Singapore and Taiwan are reporting problems with their check-in and ticketing systems, resulting in flight delays and chaos at airports.
U.S. federal airspace officials announced a nationwide halt to air traffic on Friday due to the power cuts, that could have an effect on the climateexperts told TechCrunch. Others were affected by the blackout and air chaos In other ways.
In the UK, the London Stock Exchange reported outages. Several UK medical practices said on June 10 that the outage had The clinical computer system of the National Health Service which contains medical records and is used to schedule appointments.
And in the United States, some 911 call centers and non-emergency call centers appear to be affected. Alaska State Police Publication He said many of those call centers “were not functioning properly across the state of Alaska.”
British news broadcaster Sky News had trouble broadcasting live this morning because of the outage, the company's chief executive David Rhodes said. tweetedThe New Zealand Herald newspaper reported that the country's banking services were also affected by the problem and several Indian news channels said they also experienced transmission problems.
Employees at many companies have reported being unable to boot their computers due to the issue. The outage came shortly after Microsoft confirmed service issues with its Microsoft 365 apps late Thursday, affecting several airlines including Delta and United. Service status page says the problems are being resolved.
And amid the chaos, misinformation has spread, including that… Las Vegas Sphere displayed a blue screen of death.
Before CrowdStrike acknowledged its role in the crash, businesses and security experts began pointing the finger at the company Friday morning, whose software is used by millions of people in businesses to manage the security of both devices and servers. Experts told TechCrunch that Rivals could benefit from the debaclealso.
CrowdStrike counts nearly 60% of Fortune 500 companies and more than half of Fortune 1000 companies among its customers, according to its website. Its services are deployed by eight of the top 10 financial services companies and an equal number of leading technology companies. It also has a deep and broad presence in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors, serving six and seven of the top 10 companies in those industries, respectively.
CrowdStrike's shares were It fell about 11% when the market closed on Friday.and a market cap of $74.2 billion at the time of writing.
Ram Iyer, Ingrid Lunden and Zack Whittaker contributed to this report.
This story was originally published at 12:09 a.m. on July 19 and has been updated to reflect new information.
