Listen, just because they had a little software glitch is no reason to condemn the software. I think CrowdStrike is a perfectly good product, although it's a fricken miracle we don't use it or you wouldn't be reading the Spritzler Report right now. Oh well!
What to know about the massive global tech outage grounding flights, disrupting banks and more
CrowdStrike, a widely-used cybersecurity firm, bungled a software update — plunging airports and businesses into chaos
By William Gavin, Quartz Media
Published 2 hours ago
Computer systems at businesses around the world failed after cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike bungled an update, and Microsoft reported issues with its Azure cloud service.
What happened?
On Thursday night, Austin, Texas-based CrowdStrike issued a regular software update to its Falcon Sensor software, which is designed to protect against malware and “much more.” The company says its system uses next-generation antivirus, endpoint detection and response, cyber threat intelligence, managed threat hunting capabilities, and security hygiene to protect customers.
In other words, it’s usually very good and relies on a lot advanced technology. But this time, a defect in the planned update impacted Microsoft’s Windows operating systems.
“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz wrote Friday morning on X. “This is not a security incident or cyberattack.”
Separately, Microsoft said a configuration change affected its Azure cloud service, which caused an interruption that affected its Microsoft 365 products. Clients across the U.S. were affected by the outage, which left businesses unable to access Microsoft 365 services like Office and Teams.
Microsoft has also been affected by the CrowdStrike issues, which left users across the world grappling with the “Blue Screen of Death,” posting pictures of their frozen screens online as they were left unable to access corporate laptops and computers.
“I don’t think it’s too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history,” Troy Hunt, a security consultant and creator of “Have I Been Pwned?,” wrote on X.
What is CrowdStrike?
CrowdStrike is a widely used cybersecurity software provider. Its software detects and prevents hackers from accessing files on Microsoft computers. The Texas-based cybersecurity giant is used by government agencies and Fortune 500 companies.
It has helped the U.S. government investigate North Korean hackers and investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Its co-founder and CEO is George Kurtz, who previously worked at McAfee.
What’s affected by the CrowdStrike outage?
More than half of Fortune 500 companies use CrowdStrike’s software, according to a promotional video from the firm earlier this year. As of March, at the end of the company’s fiscal year 2024, CrowdStrike had more than 29,000 subscription customers, excluding smaller customers served through its partners. It’s unclear exactly how many have been affected.
The outages have impacted more than 30,000 flights, according to FlightAware. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that several airlines have requested assistance with ground stops. Delta Air Lines and and United Airlines have resumed some flights. American Airlines said it has fully restored operations.
Read more: Delta, American, and United Airlines are waiving change fees as the CrowdStrike global tech outage delays flights
Airlines and airports across Europe and Asia have also been affected, with Lufthansa-subsidiary Eurowings canceling all German domestic flights and services to and from the U.K. The ground operations of airlines at seven major airports in Thailand have also been disrupted, with disruptions being reported at airports in Hong King and Singapore.
The issues have also spread to the London Stock Exchange, banks, McDonald’s stores, and even U.K. public broadcaster Sky News. Downdetector, an online service that tracks user-reported outages at major companies, has recorded growing outages at firms like Starbucks, Ticketmaster, BetMGM, and United Parcel Service.
Early on Friday morning, Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford, England, declared a “critical incident” because of external issues that are affecting its systems, including one used to deliver radiotherapy treatments. Although the hospital is now able to resume radiotherapy services, it expects disruptions that may affect some appointments.
Boston’s Mass General Brigham has canceled “all previously scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and medical visits,” while New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has paused all procedures that require anesthesia. Health centers in Germany and Israel have also been affected.
The CEO of the Global Payroll Association has said that clients are unable to access their software due to the outages, according to Finextra. Visa, Zelle, TD Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, and Bank of America have had issues Friday, according to DownDetector.
What happens next?
In an interview with the Today show, Kurtz said “we’re deeply sorry” to anyone impacted by the issues, including customers and travelers. CrowdStrike is actively working with customers to get systems back online.
“The system was sent an update and that update had a software bug in it that caused an issue with the Microsoft operating system,” Kurtz said. “As systems come back online, as they’re rebooted, they’re coming up and they’re working.”
An updated fix has been sent to clients’ computers, although progress will likely be slow. Lukasz Olejnik, an independent cybersecurity researcher and consultant, told The New York Times that it’s unclear how to fix the sheer number of computers that have been affected. The current suggested solution involves manually rebooting each computer into safe mode, deleting a file, and restarting.
But that will take time — and likely a lot of it.
Microsoft has said that the “underlying cause of the issue” affecting Azure has been fixed, adding that several Microsoft 365 apps have been fully restored, including OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. However, some apps and services are suffering from residual impact.
Microsoft stock dipped about 0.60% Friday. CrowdStrike stock dropped by more than 9% in trading and is expected to have a difficult time moving past the incident.
“This is clearly a major black eye for CrowdStrike and the stock will be under pressure after this global outage related to Microsoft has caused massive disruption globally,” Wedbush Securities analysts said in a note published Friday.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
—Laura Bratton contributed to this article.
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