In the US, hundreds of flights were canceled on Friday morning and some public transport systems reported impacts.
A flawed update from US cybersecurity software company CrowdStrike brought down Microsoft Windows systems around the world on Friday. The technology outage disrupted operations at industries such as banks, hospitals and 911 call centers, as well as ground flights and disrupted public transit systems and. Although a patch was developed to bring most systems back to normal by the afternoon, ripple effects could be felt throughout the weekend, experts warned.
CrowdStrike, which touts itself as being used by more than half of the Fortune 500 companies, said one of its recent content updates had a flaw that affected Microsoft’s Windows operating system, adding that the incident “was not a security incident or cyberattack “.
“Earlier today, a CrowdStrike update was responsible for bringing down a number of IT systems worldwide,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement Friday afternoon. “We are actively supporting customers to help them recover.”
The company’s CEO, George Kurtz, apologized for the outage in a post on X, noting that the issue has been identified and isolated, and a fix has been developed. CrowdStrike is “working with all affected customers to ensure systems are supported and can provide the services their customers rely on.” Meanwhile, Microsoft said “the underlying cause has been fixed” and affected Microsoft 365 apps and services have been restored, although the company continues to monitor the issue.
Kurtz went on to warn in his statement, “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this. I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you engage with official CrowdStrike representatives.”
In the US, thousands of flights were canceled on Friday morning. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines were among those that grounded flights less than an hour after Microsoft said it had resolved an outage related to cloud services that affected many low-cost carriers.
“Every line is long,” said Chance Ortego, 31, whose flight to New York was canceled Friday morning.
Public transit systems in the US also reported temporary impacts, but for the most part, trains and buses were operating as scheduled. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in Washington, D.C., said its “website and some of our internal systems are currently down,” but trip planning apps were later restored. In New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority also said some of the MTA’s customer information systems were temporarily offline until 5:30 p.m.
Around the world, the outage disrupted the London Stock Exchange, caused long train delays in the UK, sent UK broadcaster Sky News off the air, forced medical facilities in Europe and the US to cancel some services and caused airport disruptions in Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong and India.
The widespread economic impact from the outage is expected to be small, although many companies were still trying to resume full operations by the stock market close.
Travel disruptions: Over 2,000 US flights canceled amid global IT outage
Developments:
◾ More than 5,000 flights were canceled worldwide by 3:30 p.m. Eastern, about 4.6 percent of all scheduled commercial flights for the day, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
◾ Some U.S. border crossings were affected amid the shutdown: Traffic was halted on the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, Canada, as well as the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, the Detroit Free Press reported . CBP One, the Customs and Border Patrol app and the agency’s border wait time website, each appeared to experience outages.
◾ US stocks closed lower on Friday due to the shutdown. CrowdStrike shares closed down 11.1% at $304.96, with analysts predicting the outage will cost the company money to fix and restore trust with its customers. It was the lowest close for the stock since May 2. Microsoft shares fared better, closing up just 0.74% at $437.11.
◾ Krispy Kreme gave away free donuts on Friday due to the global technology outage.
◾ Some Starbucks locations were reportedly taking cash only on Friday, and customers reported being unable to use the coffee chain’s mobile app.
◾ Some had a sense of humor through it, with workers having to be confused by expressing their wishes for a digital snow day from the office − “Knock Teams out” − as the disruption did not equate to a stoppage of work for everyone.
◾ Dubai International Airport told X that it is operating normally after “a global system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines.” It added that the affected airlines “immediately switched to an alternative system, allowing normal check-in operations to resume quickly.
Portland issues a state of emergency
Portland, Oregon Mayor Ted Wheeler issued an emergency declaration Friday about the technology outage, with a statement noting that the outage is affecting city servers, employee computers and emergency communications.
Meanwhile, the Maryland Department of Emergency Management raised the activation level of the situation from “regular” to “partial,” citing the technology outage. A post on X says a “partial” activation is for incidents requiring “significant follow-up or resources,” with additional emergency operations staffing from other agencies, operations and support organizations.
