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Microsoft Global Crash LIVE Updates as Crowdstrike Security Outage Leaves Airports, Hospitals and 911 Calls in Chaos

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July 20, 2024

A Microsoft global outage has wreaked havoc across America, locking countless individuals out of their bank accounts, causing hospital cancelations and even grounding flights.

 

Via themirror.com:

American Airlines, United and Delta issued a global ground stop on all flights, while hospitals and 911 call centers were down due to a Microsoft outage.

The notorious Blue Screen of Death is popping up everywhere, from banks to supermarkets and media outlets, causing widespread panic and confusion. All United, Delta and American Airlines flights were grounded amid the chaos.

Microsoft has issued a statement on the issue. “Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions,” Microsoft said on X this morning. “We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue.”

Crowdstrike has also issued a statement on the ongoing IT outage. CEO George Kurtz said on X: "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.

 

Passengers are supplied with water bottles The IT outage is causing huge crowds at airports ( Image: PA)

 

"The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.

"We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."

ABC News has broadcasted that air traffic controllers are being instructed to inform pilots mid-flight about the airlines’ severe communication breakdowns. Delta has now resumed some flight departures, but warned of major delays.

United Airlines also announced they are "resuming some flights" after being impacted by the global CrowdStrike issue. In a statement, they said: "A third-party software outage impacted computer systems worldwide, including at United. We are resuming some flights but expect schedule disruptions to continue throughout Friday.

"We have issued a waiver to make it easier for customers to change their travel plans via United.com or the United app." The announcement comes after American Airlines, United and Delta issued a global ground stop on all flights.

The crisis even reached emergency services, with police and ambulance providers across Phoenix and New Hampshire being forced to dispatch cars manually. 911 dispatchers were able to take calls but were writing down information on paper to share with first responders.

Cybersecurity experts at Crowdstrike attribute the chaos to a glitch in “content deployment”. The National Cyber Security Coordinator in Australia has downplayed fears of a cyber-attack, stating that the current outage seems to be due to a technical glitch, “and outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Tamara Sharf has taken to X to express her concerns about the chaos the outage is causing in hospitals. She detailed the critical situation, saying management systems are collapsing. Her post read: “Rumor has it EMR is down at major hospitals in NY and CA. We are locked out of Cerner here and I heard from a friend in LA that Epic is down at their hospital. 911 outage here too apparently. Is it really that widespread? What are folks experiencing?"

 

History of CrowdStrike

Founded in 2011 and publicly traded since 2019, CrowdStrike describes itself in its annual report to financial regulators as having "reinvented cybersecurity for the cloud era and transformed the way cybersecurity is delivered and experienced by customers." It emphasizes its use of artificial intelligence in helping to keep pace with adversaries. It reported having 29,000 subscribing customers at the start of the year.

The Austin, Texas-based firm is one of the more visible cybersecurity companies in the world and spends heavily on marketing, including Super Bowl ads. At cybersecurity conferences, it's known for large booths displaying massive action-figure statues representing different state-sponsored hacking groups that CrowdStrike technology promises to defend against.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz is among the most highly compensated in the world, recording more than $230 million in total compensation in the last three years. Kurtz is also a driver for a CrowdStrike-sponsored car racing team.

 

NHS warns of ‘continued disruption’ into next week

The global IT failure is expected to cause "continued disruption" to general practitioner services throughout next week, according to NHS England.

A faulty update released on Friday by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike took many offline globally, leading to the cancellation of flights and trains as well as the collapse of some healthcare systems.

On Friday, a remedy was released for an issue with the upgrade that was affecting Microsoft Windows PCs. The CEO of CrowdStrike stated that it would require "some time" for the systems to be fully recovered.

Due to a malfunction in their EMIS appointment and patient record system on Friday, general practitioners' offices around England reported being unable to schedule appointments or access patient records.

Microsoft claims that the worldwide IT disruption rendered 8.5 million computers unusable worldwide.

This is the first time a number has been assigned to the incident, which continues to cause issues worldwide.

According to a blog post by Microsoft, which is assisting customers with their recovery, "we currently estimate that CrowdStrike’s update affected 8.5 million Windows devices."

Although this represents fewer than 1% of all Windows computers globally, according to the post by David Weston, vice-president of the company's enterprise and operating system, "the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services".

Due to performance telemetry provided by numerous internet connections, the company can determine with great accuracy how many devices were rendered inoperable during the outage.

The computing behemoth, which was quick to clarify that there was no problem with its software, claims the incident emphasizes how crucial it is for organizations like CrowdStrike to employ quality control checks on upgrades before to distribution.

 

Flights at Gatwick to operate as usual today

According to Gatwick Airport, the "majority" of flights should run normally today. It has stated that its IT systems are currently functioning normally, the BBC reported.


"However, there will be a few more cancellations and delays this evening and into the weekend. For the most recent information, we strongly suggest travelers to check with their airline," an airline representative stated. They also state that more employees will be present in the terminals this evening.

A faulty upgrade from US cyber security firm CrowdStrike was the root of the problem, causing issues with Windows systems. Although Microsoft claims that the root cause of the outage has been resolved, the effects of the cybersecurity outages are still being felt.

 

CrowdStrike fault that sparked global chaos exposed 'weakness in backbone of all IT infrastructure'

Due to a software error, cybersecurity behemoth CrowdStrike caused mayhem around the globe, forcing hospitals, banks, and airplanes to be grounded.

Due to a flawed update from CrowdStrike, which is relied upon by major corporations worldwide to thwart hackers, mayhem broke out on Friday.

"This is a function of the very homogenous technology that goes into the backbone of all of our IT infrastructure," explained Gregory Falco, an assistant professor of engineering at Cornell University. "What really causes this mess is that we rely on very few companies, and everybody uses the same folks, so everyone goes down at the same time."

CrowdStrike has confirmed that a hack was not the cause of the problem, which affected PCs using Microsoft's Windows operating system. They apologized and said they were working on a fix.

Microsoft employees fume online about outage

A unhappy Microsoft customer said on X: 'Microsoft outage yet Teams and Outlook are both working is the adult version of snow that doesn't settle enough to close schools.'

Another lamented, "I'm so pissed off. This outage has not affected my Microsoft Teams account or email inbox, however it has prevented the vending machine in the building from working."

One user humorously joked: "Americans and everyone are running to Twitter to see why Microsoft, global IT, Delta Airlines, American Airlines, Skynews, and outage are trending..."

"People are annoyed because their Microsoft services are offline. Another X user expressed frustration that his Microsoft services were not down and running properly."

 

Criminals could exploit the IT disruption

Cyber-security experts are sounding the alarm over a second wave of disruption and harm from cyber criminals looking to exploit the chaos.

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), Australia's equivalent to the UK's GCHQ or the US National Security Agency (NSA), issued an alert about hackers distributing fake software fixes purporting to be from CrowdStrike.

"Alert! We understand a number of malicious websites and unofficial code are being released claiming to help entities recover" the notice reads.

The agency is advising IT responders to only use CrowdStrike's official website for information and assistance. This warning from ASD comes on the heels of a similar caution from the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) yesterday, urging people to be extra vigilant of suspicious emails or calls pretending to be from CrowdStrike or Microsoft support.

"An increase in phishing referencing this outage has already been observed, as opportunistic malicious actors seek to take advantage of the situation," the agency warned.

 

Is there a fix?

Disruptions on Friday continued hours after CrowdStrike first identified the issue. But both the company and Microsoft said that they’re working to get systems back online.

In an emailed statement, CrowdStrike said that it was “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts” — adding that a fix “had been deployed” for the identified issue.

CrowdStrike President and CEO George Kurtz later apologized. “We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption,” he wrote on social media platform X.

Microsoft spokesperson Frank X. Shaw said that the company was “actively supporting customers to assist in their recovery.” Both CrowdStrike and Microsoft are also appearing to engage IT personnel on official online channels, such as Reddit.

 

Incident shows just how 'vulnerable' we are

Experts stress that Friday’s disruptions show the vulnerability of worldwide dependence on software that comes from only a handful of providers.

“It is an ‘all our eggs are in one basket’ situation,” Craig Shue, professor and computer science department head at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, said in emailed commentary. “This lets us make sure our ‘basket’ is high quality: the software provider tries to identify threats and respond to them quickly. But at the same time, if anything goes wrong and the basket fails, we have a lot of broken eggs.”

 

How did Friday’s ‘blue screen’ outage emerge?

Friday’s disruptions began when a faulty update was pushed out from CrowdStrike for one of its tools, “Falcon.” In a statement about the ongoing situation, the company said the defect was found “in a single content update for Windows hosts” — noting that Mac and Linux systems were not impacted.

But, because scores of companies rely on CrowdStrike for their security needs with Windows as their operating system, the consequences of this kind of technical problem have been far-reaching. As a result, affected computer after computer showed the “blue screen of death” error message.

 

Everything from airports to banks affected

Long lines formed at airports in the U.S., Europe and Asia as airlines lost access to check-in and booking services during peak summer travel — disrupting thousands of flights. Banks in South Africa and New Zealand reported outages impacting payments. Some news stations, particularly in Australia, were unable to broadcast for hours. And hospitals had problems with their appointment systems, leading to delays and sometimes cancelations for critical care, while officials in some U.S. states warned of 911 problems in their areas.

Elsewhere, people experienced more minor inconveniences, including trouble ordering ahead at Starbucks, causing long lines at some of the coffee chain’s stores. Some billboards in New York City’s famous Times Square also went dark.

 

Crowdstrike may lose $16 BILLION

Crowdstrike's IT outage that brought the world to a grinding halt could cause a $16 BILLION loss for the company - a fifth of its entire value.

The outage caused Microsoft systems to crash across the world, with everywhere from airports, banks and supermarket systems met with a blue screen. All United, Delta and American Airlines flights were grounded amid the chaos. Crowdstrike shares plummeted, losing a fifth of their value in trading in the US and was down 21% in unofficial trading, reports the Hindustan Times.

According the projections based of the fall in share value, this would result in a loss of almost $16 billion in the company's value. Microsoft has issued a statement on the issue. “Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions,” Microsoft said on X this morning. “We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue.”

  

Read the full story here: Crowdstrike IT outage could cause $16 BILLION loss for company - a fifth of its entire value

 

Outages could 'take days' to recover from - or longer

The impact from today’s global outages could “take days” to recover from - or even longer according to experts.

Adam Leon Smith, a BCS Fellow and a cyber security expert said: "People want to get security updates rolled out as quickly as possible because that helps prevent against what we call 'zero-day' attacks; new ways actors are found to compromise systems.

“There's a trade-off here between the speed of ensuring that systems get protected against new threats and the due diligence done to protect the system's resilience and stop things like this incident from happening."

 

What actually caused global IT outage?

The outage was triggered by a bug in a cyber security update of Microsoft Windows. Security consultant Troy Hunt said: “I don’t think it’s too early to call it… This will be the largest IT outage in history.” Here is what you need to know.

What happened?

If you’ve got a computer and – rightly – have anti-virus software, it updates regularly to guard against threats, fix faults or add new features. What happened this time has been traced to an update from a US software security firm called CrowdStrike.

CrowdStrike issued an update to its Falcon virus scanner for computers running Microsoft’s Windows software. Other operating systems, such as Apple’s Mac OS, were not affected. A flaw in the update – possibly due to human error – caused an issue with the device driver, a critical file within Windows. As a result, Windows could not reload, causing the dreaded “blue screen of death”.

How widespread was it?

Experts are calling it the biggest IT outage in history. Millions of users around the world have been impacted. It extends from laptops to smartphones to whole computer systems – any connected to a corporate network. Customers of Microsoft’s cloud-based service Azure also reported issues.

 

Senator asks U.S. Department of Defense for briefing on internet outage

Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt sent a letter to the acting chief information officer of the Department of Defense on Friday, requesting a briefing on the IT issue that’s caused the global outages.

He wrote: “A single point of failure in a cybersecurity strategy has proven time and time again to be a threat to our national security.”

He called for a complete re-examination of cyber safeguards.

A Department of Defense spokesperson said in a statement it was aware of the issues and personnel were monitoring their networks.

“For operational security reasons, we do not comment on the status of our network operations, information systems or operations to assess cyber threats,” the statement read.

 

Huge global tech blunder sees CrowdStrike boss lose $322m as firm sheds billions

George Kurtz, the cofounder and CEO of CrowdStrike the company behind a worldwide IT meltdown today, lost nearly $322 million of his personal fortune, as his firm accepted responsibility for the outage that halted airports and businesses around the world.

The Texas-based cybersecurity firm powers for some of the world's top companies and global financial institutions. The company issued an apology on Friday, July 19, after a faulty update affected Windows customers affecting airlines, airports, broadcasters, the NHS, train services and investment platforms.

 

    Border crossings in the U.S. are delayed

    People looking to enter and exit the U.S. have been delayed during the global IT outage.

    Pedestrians were waiting three hours to cross at the San Ysidro Port of Entry Friday morning. Even those with U.S. Customers and Border Protection “Trusted Traveler” program for low-risk passengers waited up to 90 minutes.

    The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System posted on X that some of its employees who live in Tijuana, Mexico, were unable to make it to work on Friday.

    Windsor Police at the Canada border also warned of delays at the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel.

     

    Billboards in Time Square go dark during global IT outage

    Videos have been circulating online of several billboards in Times Square powered off during the outage.

    Tom Harris, president of the Times Square Alliance, said a “handful” of the more than 100 billboards in the tourist destination were offline around noon Friday.

    “We’re almost back to business as usual,” he told the AP. He said it’s not clear whether the blackouts were related to the global tech outage or part of regularly scheduled maintenance or other issues as the billboards are independently owned and operated.

     

    Texas and New York face disruptions in driver’s license offices

    Texas had to close all of its driver’s license offices across the state Friday, while New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles couldn’t process transactions online or in it’s offices.

    The Texas Department of Public Safety, which operates the driver’s license offices in most counties, said in a statement that “there is no current estimate” on when the offices will reopen.

    In New York, some systems had been restored and that could begin performing online transactions while others were still offline. At least three DMV offices were closed.

     

    New York courts faced delayed proceedings, including that of Harvey Weinstein

    Courts in New York faced disruptions Friday from the global internet outage. The delays were attributed to computer problems.

    The criminal proceedings for Harvey Weinstein, who is charged with rape, started 90 minutes late in Manhattan due to the disruptions to the court and corrections computer systems.

     

    Starbucks mobile orders are down

    Starbucks has reported its online ordering system is not working amid the IT outage.

    Upon opening the app, customers are met with a message stating: “We’re sorry for the inconvenience. Mobile Ordering is currently unavailable. Please visit one of our stores and place your order with a barista.”

    Jaci Anderson, the company’s director of communications, told NBC News: “We continue to welcome and serve customers in the vast majority of our stores and drive-thrus and are doing everything we can to bring all systems online as quickly as possible.”

     

    Customers likely won’t see the effect of the outage in stores

    Several retailers have noted that they have been impacted by the global IT outage, but those problem areas are not customer facing.

    Walgreens told The Washington Post the company has “minimal disruption” to its operations while its “stores remain open and able to serve our patients and customers.” CVS Health Corp. also said its drugstores and pharmacies were operating normally.

    Macy’s stores and its affiliates Bloomingdales and Blue Mercury continue to be operational for customers as well.

    Home Depot has been impacted, but its stores and websites are working while the company’s “teams are working rapidly to work around the impacts.”

    Kroger and it’s stores are not experiencing a major impact as well.

     

    IT outage could cost global economy trillions of dollars

    Experts have warned the Microsoft outage could cost the global economy trillions.

    The U.S. Sun reported the estimated global cost of internet disruption for 20 hours is $24 billion. While the bug has been fixed, companies and organizations that use Microsoft systems are experiencing a ripple effect from the outage.

    BCS, the Chartered institute for IT, said it could take days or even weeks to fully recover.

     

    Incredible time lapse shows skies empty over US after crippling global IT glitch

    A 12-hour timelapse has captured the dramatic moment America's skies cleared as a global IT outage forced major airlines to ground flights.

    American Airlines, United, and Delta were hit by an extraordinary system failure that threw travel plans into disarray globally. The aviation behemoths announced a worldwide stoppage of all flights due to "communication issues" early Friday morning, leading to over 1,000 flight cancellations across the U. S.

     

    Image: (Image: @us_stormwatch / Instagram)

    Arizona early primary voting affected by outage

    Some voting locations in Maricopa County, Arizona, have been affected by the global IT outage, causing limitations in early primary voting.

    The county released a statement on X, saying: “Due to the global tech outage, Maricopa County Elections is also experiencing an outage at some voting locations. Please visit Loctions.Maricopa.Vote for the most up-to-date information about locations that are open and their hours of operation.”

     

    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hopeful systems will be more normal by tomorrow

    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNBC News the bug from CrowdStrike has been resolved, but the issues still being seen are a ripple effect. Airlines are still the most affected, while certain ports and public transportation are seeing smaller problems.

    “I think we’re going to continue to see a number of spot issues across different systems as things move back toward normal during the course of the day.”

    He continued: “The challenge is, we have such tightly wound and interdependent systems that these ripple effects can carry on, but it does seem, as of now, hour by hour, the issues are being addressed, resolved and smoothed out.

    “We’re hopeful that we’ll get to something much more resembling normal by the time we get to tomorrow.”

     

    U.S. cyber defense agency warns hackers are taking advantage of the outage

    The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency released a statement saying it’s working with CrowdStrike and other national and international partners to assess the impacts of the outage.

    While the outage was not due to a cyber attack, the organization noted it has “observed threat actors taking advantage of this incident for phishing and other malicious activity.”

    “CISA urges organizations and individuals to remain vigilant and only follow instructions from legitimate sources. CISA recommends organizations to remind their employees to avoid clicking on phishing emails or suspicious links.

     

    FAA lifts ground stop orders on Delta, United

    The Federal Aviation Administration has lifted the ground stop orders for Delta and United airlines.

    American Airlines said it has resolved the issues affecting its operations, and “as of 5 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation.”

    Southwest and Jet Blue said they did not experience system-wide delays or cancelations.

     

    Microsoft CEO releases statement on outage

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella released his first statement on the outage Friday.

    “CrowdStrike released an update that began impacting IT systems globally. We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online.”

     

    CrowdStrike CEO’s net worth revealed after global IT outage

    George Kurtz, founder and CEO of CrowdStrike, has an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion as of 2024, according to Forbes. He currently maintains a 5% stake in his company which racked in $2.24 billion last year.

    The 53-year-old's wealth landed him at number #1033 of Forbes' billionaires list. He also secured an 8 on the self-made scale and a 1 on the philanthropic scale.

    This is not the company’s first controversy. In 2016, they became known for aiding the Democratic National Convention after a 2016 hack that resulted in leaked emails.

    That situation made the company an enemy of former president Donald Trump, who accused it of having ties with Ukraine. The investigation from Robert Mueller identified Russian operatives as the root of the problem, which actually favored Trump.

     

    Television stations are recovering after overnight disruptions

    The global outage prevented some television news stations from airing overnight and early Friday morning.

    Several affiliates of Scripps News were unable to air local news reports. KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Missouri, aired national news network Scripps News instead of local news until about 5:35 a.m..

    IT teams worked to resolve the problem throughout the night. Scripps spokesman Michael Perry told AP News that as of 8 a.m. EDT, 90% of stations were able to air local news.

     

    CrowdStrike CEO shares where people can find latest updates on outage

    In an updated statement, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz shared where people can find the latest updates on the outage.


    “For the latest information that we will continuously update, please refer to the CrowdStrike website, my posts on LinkedIn, and my posts on X. I will continue to provide updates to our community and the industry as they become available.”

     

    IT experts say recovery from the outage could ''take days and weeks'

    The impact of the global IT outage could “take days or weeks” to recover from, says BCS, the Chartered institute for IT. The professional body of IT has called on the government to track, record and assess the outages to build up our national resilience to such critical issues.

    While the problem has been identified and resolved, it's unclear how long it will take for everything to get back to normal.

    Adam Leon Smith, a BCS Fellow and a cyber security expert, said: “In some cases, the fix may be applied very quickly, but because it has to be applied to so many computers around the world, that may take longer than it sounds. But if computers have reacted in a way that means they're getting into blue screens and endless loops it may be difficult to restore, and that could take days and weeks.

    He also explains the outage could have been worse, as Microsoft isn't the primary system for mission-critical systems.

    "We have to look at the complex supply chain infrastructure that's providing the systems, services and products we rely on every day. Software should be a priority when we are planning from a national resilience point of view. The government needs to start tracking when things like this happen – even lesser incidents. We need to start understanding the nation's ability to respond to such events."

     

    FedEx, UPS warn of delays are possible after “substantial disruptions”

    FedEx said it has experienced disruptions throughout its network due to the Microsoft outage.

    "Contingency plans have been activated to mitigate impacts but potential delays are possible for package deliveries with a delivery commitment of July 19, 2024," it said in the statement.

    UPS said the outage has also affected some of its systems, which could lead to potential delays. At this time, however, the company's airlines and drivers are still “operating effectively,” a representative told CBS MoneyWatch.

    These potential delivery issues could impact items purchased during Amazon Prime Day, which wrapped up Wednesday. It’s one of the biggest online shopping events of the year, with consumers purchasing more than 200 million items and spending a record $14.2 billion this year.

     

    Texas hospitals suspend service “until further notice”

    Harris Health System, which runs many hospitals and clinics in Houston, Texas, has suspended certain hospital visits Friday “until further notice.”

    Dialysis services remain open at the Harris Health Quentin Mease Health Center.

    “All other Harris Health outpatient clinic appointments and elective hospital procedures are being canceled today and will be rescheduled when the information systems issues are resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working with our IT teams and consultants to remedy this outage."

     

    CrowdStrike CEO says the company is “deeply sorry”

    CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz spoke with NBC’s Today Show, saying the company is “deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our company.”

    The issue has now been resolved and systems are recovering, but he said “it could take some time for some systems that won’t automatically recover.”

     

    Maryland courts, offices and facilities will be closed Friday

    All Maryland courts are closed to the public Friday due to the Microsoft outage. They will still be operational for emergency matters, however.

    According to a news release: “Due to the worldwide Microsoft outage, all Maryland courts, offices, and facilities will be closed to the public today but will remain open for emergency matters. All clerks’ offices are closed.”

    The Maryland Department of Emergency Management is activating it’s emergency operations center as well.

     

    Virginia systems appear to be operating

    Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin released a statement Friday saying the state’s health, safety and transportation systems appear to be operational after an assessment of the outages.

    He wrote: “However, airlines continue to experience significant disruptions. The assessment determined that government administrative functions are experiencing disruptions, and we are coordinating with local, regional and federal authorities and private sector critical infrastructure partners in order to reestablish normal operations.”

    He continued saying Virginians may experience delays but should remain patient during this time.

     

    More than £9bn wiped off Crowdstrike's value after huge IT outage

    More than $12.5bn - about £9bn - has been wiped off the value of Crowdstrike after today's huge outage.

    Shares in the company at the centre of the global problem opened almost 15% down on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York.

    Wedbush Securities' tech expert Dan Ives said: "Crowdstrike has a strong brand and global marketing presence which will need to go into next gear over the coming weeks and months to curtail some damage from this."

     

    Baltimore Washington International Airport hit by IT outage as flights cancelled

    Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is the latest to be affected by the mass global IT outage.

    According to reports as of 9.45am about 2 percent of flights have been cancelled, totalling 9, while 20 percent of flights have been delayed. This represents 75 in total.

    Southwest doesn't appear to be impacted.

     

    Airport officials urge patience

    Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport has issued a warning to passengers.

    Staff members have been handing out bottles of water to travelers who are standing in line waiting to rebook flights. According to FlightAware.com, 75 departures — about 20% of those scheduled — were delayed, and nine were canceled by about 10am ET.

     

    Joe Biden briefed on outage

    President Joe Biden has been briefed on the outage.

    A White House spokesperson has released the following statement on the outage: "The president has been briefed on the CrowdStrike outage and his team is in touch with CrowdStrike and impacted entities.

    "His team is engaged across the interagency to get sector by sector updates throughout the day and is standing by to provide assistance as needed."

     

    Passengers miss flights due to check-in issues

    Passengers have missed flights due to the inability to check-in baggage at airports across the globe.

    Over in London, UK, Nicky Walters had been waiting for four hours to check in her bags, only to be told she had missed her flight. She said: "The flight was put back to 11am and the last message I had was that the flight was boarding - who is on it though?

    "I've been waiting to check luggage in, but we've been told the scanners are down and so we've just been sitting here for the last four hours. There's been a distinct lack of information from Vueling. I know it's not their fault, but it would be nice to be kept in the loop as much as possible.

     

    Long lines in Portland airport

    Portland airport has encouraged travelers to get in touch with their airlines if they are traveling amid the mass IT outage.

    Long queues have been forming at the airport as passengers await updates. One video on social media showed travelers standing in crowds amid the severe delays.

    One person wrote: "SYSTEM OUTAGE‼️: The line for@Delta and @AmericanAir this morning… numerous delays at PDX after flights were grounded from the IT outage. Impacted airlines include American, Delta, and United.

    "@PortOfPortland recommends getting in touch with your airline if you’re traveling today."

    Delta resumes some flights

    Delta has resumed some flight departures after issuing a global ground stop on all flights.

    American Airlines, United and Delta also asked the FAA for a global ground stop on all flights due to the ongoing communication issues, according to ABC News.

    Now, Delta has resumed some departures but warned passengers to expect additional delays and cancelations.

     

    CrowdStrike statement on Falcon content update

    CrowdStrike has released a new statement on the Falcon content update for Windows hosts.

    In a comment published on its website, the company said: "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.

    "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.

    "We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."

     

    Shops turn cash only

    As the IT issues continue to affect businesses, some shops have been forced to stop taking card payments.

    Pictures on social media show shopfronts displaying "cash only" cards, informing people they cannot take cards as payment glitches persist. However, some shops are now returning to business as usual as the problem is getting resolved.

     

    Mercedes F1 team hit by outage

    Mercedes F1 team members have been pictured trying to find a workaround to the ongoing problem.

    In a picture shared on social media, Mercedes team members were seen wearing T-shirts with CrowdStrike's logal while looking at the blue death screen many PC users have been hit with.

    Formula One drivers have been driving around the Hungaroring racetrack near Budapest for their first practice ahead of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

     

    Jetstar cancels all flights

    Over in Australia, Jetstar at Brisbane airport has canceled all flights for the remainder of the day.

    Hundreds of passengers have been left impacted by the decision, which was announced around 9pm local time. It's understood the decision was made due to the airline's inability to check passengers in.

     

    More than 2,100 flights canceled

    It seems like the airport chaos won't be sorted any time soon, with the number of canceled flights rising to more than 2,100 worldwide.

    At 9am ET, 1,200 of those were flights operating into, within or out of the United States. More than 22,000 flights were delayed worldwide, with delays affecting more than 2,600 flights originating and/or ending in the US.

     

    More hospital services affected

    The Harris Health Quentin Mease Health Center in Houston has been impacted by the IT issues.

    It has had to cancel all elective procedures and outpatient care. Meanwhile, the University of Miami Health System said its facilities were open but warned there would be delays due to computer records being unavailable.

     

    Passengers urged to leave airports

    One airline has begged passengers to leave the airport if their flights have been canceled.

    Ryanair has said in a statement: "Unfortunately, we’ve been forced to cancel a small number of flights today due to this global third-party IT outage. Affected passengers have been notified and are advised to log into their myRyanair account once systems are back online to see their options.

    "A full list of cancellations is available at ryanair.com. If your flight has been cancelled, we kindly request that you leave the airport as the IT outage means we cannot currently assist passengers at the airport.

    "We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by this global third-party IT outage, and we are working hard to minimise disruption and keep passengers informed."

     

    Mount Nittany Health in Pennsylvania cancels appointments

    Mount Nittany Health in Pennsylvania has been forced to cancel all non-emergency appointments, including surgeries for Friday.

    It comes amid a widespread IT problem which is affecting services across the globe. In a statement on their website, the healthcare service said: "Due to a nationwide IT outage, Mount Nittany Health is experiencing significant disruptions across our entire health system.

    "Consequently, all non-emergent appointments, including surgeries, at Mount Nittany Medical Center and our Mount Nittany Health/Mount Nittany Physician Group locations are canceled for today. We currently have limited access to patient contact information and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

     

    Microsoft users share quick fix

    People have been taking matters into their own hands and sharing handy tricks to try and combat the CrowdStrike outage.

    Videos have been shared on X, showing people how to fix their computers if they have been impacted by the widespread issue.

    Tourist pays $6,800 for new flights

    Passengers are desperate to return home, with some people forking out a lot of money for new flights.

    Stephanie Thompson, who was heading home to Dallas, Texas, from Edinburgh Airport in Scotland had to pay $6,800 for new flights home after going to the UK to attend Wimbledon and the Open Championship.

    She told the PA news agency: “It was supposed to leave at 9.25am and change in Heathrow at 11 and we were supposed to get into Dallas later today. We couldn’t get an answer from anybody. British Airways kept hanging up saying we have too many calls right now. I was on hold with American (Airlines) for about an hour and 10 minutes before I finally hung up.

    "We just paid 6,800 dollars for a one-way trip home, hopefully leaving tonight. I didn’t know what else to do. I just wanted something to get us home."

    'We won't relent until every customer is back where they were,' says CrowdStrike CEO

    CrowdStrike has committed to ensuring everyone affected by the outages will receive any assisstance they need to recover from the mass IT outages.

    Speaking in an interview, George Kurz said the firm would ensure that "every customer is recovered" after a faulty software update caused the issues.

    He said: "It is our mission to make sure that every customer is fully recovered and we’re not going to relent until we get every customer back to where they were and we’ll continue to protect them and keep the bad guys out of their systems."

    Travelers sleep in passenger bridge

    With crowds gathering at airports, passengers are becoming weary and trying to find places to rest.

    At Los Angeles International Airport, passengers have been sleeping in a jetway for a delayed United flight to Dulles International Airport. Travelers are facing delays as a result of the widespread IT outage caused by CrowdStrike.

     

    Outage caused by 'single content update'

    CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz has said the global outage has been caused by a "defect" in a "single content update" for Windows hosts.

    He said in a statement: "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.

    "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."

     

    New Jersey ports down

    The global IT outage is also causing issues for New Jersey's ports.

    Two large shipping terminals, Maher Terminals and APM Terminals, in Port Newark, New Jersey, have been forced to delay opening due to the Microsoft outage. The Port of Houston's website had also been impacted by the outage, but now seems to be back up and running.

     

    Washington DC Metro up and running after delays

    Washington DC Metro faced delays opening this morning, but has now got services up and running.

    The services were delayed earlier due to the widespread Crowd Strike problems. The Metro service has now confirmed that all Metrorail stations opened on time and services are running as scheduled.

    US secretary of transportation issues statement

    Peter Buttigieg, the US secretary of transportation, has spoken out about the crisis.

    Posting on X, he said: "We are monitoring technical issues at Frontier Airlines leading to cancellations and delays across their network. Our department will hold Frontier, and all airlines, to their responsibilities to meet the needs of passengers."

    He then urged people to look up what rights they have for compensation over the disruption.

    New York given 911 update

    While some 911 services have been affected by the CrowdStrike issues, it seems New York has not been impacted.

    The deputy spokesperson for New York City’s mayor Eric Adams said that “critical infrastructure and emergency operations, including the 911 call system, have not been impacted", in a post shared on X.

    They added: "All city IT departments will be prioritizing this work today. To be clear, we currently have no reason to believe this is anything other than a bad update from CrowdStrike. @NYCMayor has been fully briefed and is monitoring the situation."

     

    Severe delays in New York

    American airports are experiencing issues with flights, with New York being badly affected in particular.

    More than half of New York flights have been delayed due to the faulty CrowdStrike update. A map of the crisis has been shared on social media, showing the areas most affected.

    More than 2,000 flights delayed

    As airlines across the US are working to resume flights, there have already been severe delays caused by the outage.

    So far, 1,390 flights have been canceled, while around 2,000 have been delayed, according to the FlightAware tracking website. Chicago's O'Hare Airport is one of many still affected, with blue screens showing error messages across the airport.

    Mass General Brigham cancels surgeries

    Mass General Birmingham has said the "major worldwide software outage has affected many of our systems".

    Spokesperson Noah Brown issued a statement, saying: "Due to the severity of this issue, all previously scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and medical visits are cancelled today."

    The statement added: "Mass General Brigham remains open to provide care to patients with urgent health concerns in our clinics and emergency departments, and we continue to care for all patients currently receiving care in our hospitals."

    Read the full story here.

    911 outage in Alaska

    Many 911 lines in Alaska are still being impacted by the issues.

    The Alaska state troopers said on Facebook: "Due to a nationwide technology-related outage, many 911 and non-emergency call centers are not working correctly across the State of Alaska. If you have an emergency and 911 is not working in your area, you can call the following phone numbers directly:

    "Interior Alaska, Western Alaska, Southeast Alaska: 907-474-2568, Mat-Su Valley: 907-376-5486, Kenai Peninsula: 907-262-4453. We appreciate your patience and will update you when we know more."

     

    Bizarre fix offered by Microsoft

    Microsoft has suggested people try switching their device on and off up to 15 times to try and fix the issue.

    "Several reboots (as many as 15 have been reported) may be required, but overall feedback is that reboots are an effective troubleshooting step at this stage," the company said on its website. Microsoft also suggested deleting a certain file, which is the same solution some Crowdstrike employees have been giving on social media.

    Doctor services affected

    Over in the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) has said the outage is causing problems at most doctors' offices across England.

    NHS England said the issue has affected the appointment and patient record system they use. The issue is affecting the majority of family doctors' practices. However, it it not impacting the 999 number used to make emergency calls.

    Issue related to a 'bug' in CrowdStrike system, CEO says

    CrowdStrike founder and CEO George Kurtz has said the widespread issue was caused by a "bug" with the Microsoft operating system.

    He told the Today Show: "This system was sent an update and that update had a software bug in it and it caused an issue with the Microsoft operating system. We identified this very quickly and remediated the issue, and as systems come back online, as they're rebooted, they're coming up and they're working and now we are working with each and every customer to make sure we can bring them back online.

    "But that was the extent of the issue in terms of a bug that was related to our update."

    Makeshift check-in systems

    As well as some airports issuing handwritten boarding passes, others have been forced to create makeshift check-in systems.

    Over at Edinburgh Airport in Scotland, the entire Ryanair check-in system has been reduced to a pop up chair, with staff manually checking phones and checking people off paper lists.

     

    Employees unable to access payroll

    Some emplyees are unable to access their payroll information, Melanie Pizzey, CEO and Founder of the Global Payroll Association, has said.

    In a statement, she said: "We’ve been contacted by numerous clients already today who have been unable to access their payroll software due to the Microsoft outage and others who have been urged to log out with immediate effect.

    "Depending on the length of this outage, it could have very serious implications for businesses across the nation, particularly those who process payroll on a weekly basis."

    'We are deeply sorry,' says CrowdStrike CEO

    George Kurtz has spoken out about the chaos as he issued an apology to those affected.

    "I wanna start by saying we're deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this," he said during an appearance on the Today Show. George acknowledged that although the issue had now been fixed, it could "take some time" to fully recover.

    Passengers prepare to wait all evening

    As queues continue to build in airports, passengers are preparing to wait all evening for a solution.

    Elaine Bevan is traveling from Gatwick Airport in London to Orlando. She's been waiting for more than two hours to check-in for her flight. "We're all getting a bit tired. It took us ages to find the queue in the first place," she told the Daily Mail.

    When asked if she would be prepared to take a later flight, Elaine said: "I think we have to. It's been booked for a long time - since November last year."

     

    Microsoft issues fresh update

    Microsoft has acknowledged the continuing impact on services in a new statement.

    The company says the underlying cause for the outage has now been fixed, but admitted some Microsoft 365 apps and services continue to be affected. "Multiple services are continuing to see improvements in availability as our mitigation actions progress," they wrote on X.

    Microsoft added: "The underlying cause has been fixed, however, residual impact is continuing to affect some Microsoft 365 apps and services. We're conducting additional mitigations to provide relief."

    Outage causing queues as long as a football field

    Amid all of the travel chaos, passengers are still arriving at airports in the hope of catching their flights.

    At Boston Logan International Airport, the queues forming are the same length as a football field. One eyewitness said on X: "This is the start of the check-in line for ⁦ @SpiritAirlines in Terminal B at Logan.

    "The line is 100 yards long. A football field. Some passengers say they’ve been in line since 4am, due to the global outage impacting many airlines and other industries."

    Paris Olympics 2024 affected by global outage

    The Paris Olympics' organizing committee has announced its systems have been impacted by the ongoing crisis.

    The issue has come just one week before the games are set to begin. "We have activated contingency plans in order to continue operations," the organizing committee said in a statement.

    The outages are believed to have impacted the arrival of some delegations. 

    Why have so many people been affected?

    The IT chaos has been felt around the world.

    Cybersecurity experts said that the widespread access CrowdStrike's Falcon Sensor had to business systems meant an issue with the platform would have widespread effects. Toby Murray, associate professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne, said: "CrowdStrike Falcon has been linked to this widespread outage. CrowdStrike is a global cybersecurity and threat intelligence company.

    "Falcon is what is known as an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platform, which monitors the computers that it is installed on to detect intrusions - hacks - and respond to them. That means that Falcon is a pretty privileged piece of software in that it is able to influence how the computers it is installed on behave.

    "For example, if it detects that a computer is infected with malware that is causing the computer to communicate with an attacker, then Falcon could conceivably block that communication from occurring. If Falcon is suffering a malfunction then it could be causing a widespread outage for two reasons - one: Falcon is widely deployed on many computers, and two: because of Falcon's privileged nature. Falcon is a bit like anti-virus software: it is regularly updated with information about the latest online threats - so it can better detect them."

     

    Elon Musk weighs in

    X boss Elon Musk has weight into the issue as he made a damning statement on social media.

    Replying to a Financial Times article on the issue that is affecting services worldwide, he branded it: "Biggest IT fail ever." He then added: "Microsoft," with an angry face emoji.

    Passengers given handwritten boarding passes

    In a bid to overcome the chaos, some airports are turning to doing things manually.

    At one airport in India, passengers are being issued handwritten boarding passes. One person wrote: "The Microsoft / CrowdStrike outage has taken down most airports in India. I got my first hand-written boarding pass today."

    Other people were shocked, with one person replying: "wow back to pen paper." Another said: "Sometimes, the old-school way is still the best way when technology lets us down."

    Bush Intercontinental Airport brought to a stop

    Airports are still being affected by the IT issues, with Bush Intercontinental Airport being brought to "a full ground stop".

    Passengers have been sharing their experiences on social media, with one video showing crowds of people waiting around for any updates. "A full ground stop continues at Bush Intercontinental Airport after a massive Microsoft system outage affects the globe.

    "Some airlines are able to check in passengers, but that’s about it. No timeline yet when flights will be able to leave," one person wrote on X.

    Calls for inquiry into IT outage chaos

    Goverments around the world are now facing calls to call an inquiry into the global IT outage.

    Dr Mark A Gregory, associate professor at RMIT's School of Engineering, said questions need to be answered about what happened, as well as discussions over what penalties the company should face.

    Who is CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz?

    George Kurtz is the co-founder and CEO of CrowdStrike, a cloud-based cybersecurity company that went public in 2019.

    He co-founded the company with Dmitri Alperovitch in 2011, before Alperovitch later left the firm. Kurtz owns around a 5% stake in the company.

    CrowdStrike recorded $2.24billion in revenues in the year through January 31, 2023. Prior to CrowdStrike, Kurtz started security tech firm Foundstone in 1999, which was then acquired by McAfee in 2004.

    CrowdStrike shares plunge

    CrowdStrike shares have dropped by as much as 20% in premarket trade following the widespread IT outage.

    The firm's stock looked set to open around 17% lower at $286 per share. Microsoft shares have also suffered as issues with their services caused major disruption at airports and emergency services.

     

    Flight cancelations increase

    The number of flight cancelations across the globe has steadily increased as the global IT issue continues.

    The worldwide total has risen from 1,078 an hour ago to almost 1,400. So far, 1,390have been cancelled, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.

    The US has been the worst hit, with 512 cancelations, according to the statistics provided so far. Germany has face 92, India 56 and Italy 45.

    'Defect' causing outages worldwide

    CrowdStrike has confirmed the issues across the globe have been caused by a "defect".

    In a statement, CEO George Kurtz said: "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack."

     

    Chaos expected to be 'pretty well back to normal' by tomorrow

    While people are scrambling to get back to normal, one expert believes tomorrow will be the day.

    Dr Mark Gregory, a network engineering expert at RMIT University said: "Software like CrowdStrike's Falcon platform are typically rolled out from a central part of an organisation. They have IT support teams … they should be able to quite quickly apply the patch."

    Speaking to ABC News, he added: "Generally, I would expect this type of problem should be resolved by tomorrow morning. IT teams are going to be working late tonight because they'll need to apply the patch, then there'll be a lot of testing."

    Check-in terminals still down in Detroit

    The Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport is still facing severe issues.

    Passengers have taken to standing in long queues in what has been described by one person as a "madhouse" as people try and look for answers. All flights at the airport are currently grounded.

    Flights have also been stopped from coming into the airport. The situation has been made worse, with only one line for people to check in bags and terminals being down.

    New Hampshire 911 services restored

    Things seem to be going back to normal, with New Hampshire Emergency Services issuing a new update after being impacted by the global IT outage.

    They said in a statement: "Update: #NH911 server system has been fully restored and emergency calls to 911 are being processed normally. The exact cause of this morning’s interruption remains under investigation. Residents and visitors are reminded to only call or text 911 if experiencing an emergency."

    Police and ambulance providers across New Hampshire had been forced to dispatch cars manually. 911 dispatchers were able to take calls but were writing down information on paper to share with first responders.

     

    John F. Kennedy International Airport still impacted

    John F. Kennedy International Airport is still facing severe issues due to the CrowdStrike issue.

    One picture shared on X showed an information screen at the airport with an error message displayed. Alongside the picture, the user wrote: "Screen at JFK airport at Terminal 4 amid a widespread IT outage. Several flights have been grounded."

    Passengers complain about 'lack of information'

    With huge crowds forming in airports and passengers finding out they are now stranded, some have been complaining of a "lack of information".

    One couple, Lance and Penny Spraggons are hoping to fly to Paris to mark their 55th wedding anniversary but are currently stuck in a queue. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Lance said: "The biggest problem is the lack of information. We got here and we didn't know what was happening until we saw the queues."

     

    Passengers stranded in Nashville

    It seems the IT outage is still causing chaos in airports across America, with passengers sharing their annoyance at being stranded in Nashville.

    Videos shared online have shown huge crowds forming at the airport amid canceled flights. One person wrote on X: "Listen to this video… People are frustrated after learning their flight has been canceled at BNA due to IT issues.

    "I’ve talked to people who found out they are now stuck in Nashville."

    United Airlines 'resuming some flights'

    United Airlines have announced they are "resuming some flights" after being impacted by the global CrowdStrike issue.

    In a statement, they said: "A third-party software outage impacted computer systems worldwide, including at United. We are resuming some flights but expect schedule disruptions to continue throughout Friday.

    "We have issued a waiver to make it easier for customers to change their travek plans via United.com or the United app." The announcement comes after American Airlines, United and Delta issued a global ground stop on all flights.

    Delta Air Lines working to resolve issue as quickly as possible

    Delta Air Lines has said it is working to resolve the IT issue as quickly as possible after being impacted by the CrowdStrike global outage.

    In an update shared by Delta News Hub on X, they said: "Delta has paused its global flight schedule this morning due to a vendor technology issue that is impacting several airlines and businesses around the world. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible to resume operations."

    The company added: "Customers with flights scheduled for Friday should continue checking their flight status via the Fly Delta app and Delta.com. We are also working to issue a travel waiver this morning that will allow customers scheduled to travel Friday, July 19, to manage changes to their itinerary via Delta.com or the Fly Delta app.

    "We apologize for the inconvenience as our teams continue work to resolve the issue."

    More than 1,000 flights canceled

    The global IT chaos has meant more than 1,000 flights have been canceled around the world.

    According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, there have been 1,078 flights canceled around the world so far today. It comes after American Airlines, United and Delta issued a global ground stop on all flights.

    American airlines later issued an update on social media. They said they have "safely re-established" services and apologized to customers, many of whom were seen crowding in airports across America.

    In a statement shared on X, American Airlines said: "Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5:00 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience."

     

    Visa 'unaffected' by global outage

    Banking giant Visa has claimed to be unaffected by the global IT outage.

    A spokesperson has said: "There is no indication of any impact on Visa’s ability to process payments from this issue. Our systems are operating normally."

    They continued: "We are aware of reports of people being unable to make payments and are working with our financial institution clients to understand any impact on their services to cardholders and merchants.

    American Airlines 'safely re-established'

    American Airlines has issued a statement after issuing a global ground stop on all flights.

    They said they have "safely re-established" services and apologized to customers, many of whom were seen crowding in airports across America. In a statement shared on X, American Airlines said: "Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5:00 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience."

    What the Microsoft statement means

    Microsoft attributed the source of the worldwide outage to a "third-party software provider" and a cybersecurity expert has now explained what that means.

    Jamieson O'Reilly spoke to ABC News and suggested the company is now saying the outage stemmed from a single incident. Earlier, it seemed the outage could have been caused by two separate issues.

    "There was a bit of uncertainty, I guess there still is. We don't know exactly what's happened as to whether this was two separate incidents or something related. And so it's pointing that it was actually related, I believe," he said.

     

    11:11

    Troubleshooting fixes

    With IT systems around the world affected, many will be hoping to get back to business soon.

    Here are some troubleshooting steps: Restart your computer. Often, a simple restart can resolve temporary glitches.

    Check for updates: Ensure your operating system and drivers are up to date.

    Run a virus scan: Malware can cause system instability.

    Macs not affected by IT outage

    CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz have reassured users that Macs and Linux hosts are not affected by the global IT outage.

    In a statament on social media, he said: "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.

    "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website."

     

    CrowdStrike CEO confirms outage was not 'security incident or cyberattack'

    CrowdStrike have now issued a statement on the ongoing IT outage.

    CEO George Kurtz said on X: "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.

    "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.

    "We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."

    What is the blue screen of death?

    The blue screen of death is a critical error screen that pops up on Microsoft Windows and ReactOS operating systems.

    The error message, also known as a blue screen error, fatal error or bugcheck, comes up as a sign systems have crashed and can no longer function. There are several potential triggers for a blue screen of death including hardware failures, problems with or without a device driver, or the unexpected termination of a vital process or thread.

    The blue screen of death has been popping up for users around the globe (Image: Twitter)

    'Unprecedented' issue is 'painstaking to respond to'

    The global IT outage has been described as "completely unprecedented historically", highlighting issues in the IT industry.

    ABC technology reporter Ange Lavoipierre said: "We've never seen anything on this scale. In fact, never seen anything even close.

    "Really, what this does is it highlights the risk of what they call in the industry market consolidation, which is a fancy way of saying — too much of the global economy relying on too few tech companies, just a handful, for critical services. It will be a long recovery, is what I'm hearing, because these things are painstaking to respond to."

    Emergency service lines back in order

    The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office had been experiencing technical issues, with their phone number down amid the global IT crisis.

    Earlier today, they posted on X: "The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office non-emergency phone number, 904-630-0500 is experiencing technical issues. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. 911 lines remain working and are available."

    However, the issue has now been resolved. "All JSO phone lines are back in working order. Thank you for your patience and understanding," they said in an update.

    Emergency service lines back in order

    The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office had been experiencing technical issues, with their phone number down amid the global IT crisis.

    Earlier today, they posted on X: "The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office non-emergency phone number, 904-630-0500 is experiencing technical issues. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. 911 lines remain working and are available."

    However, the issue has now been resolved. "All JSO phone lines are back in working order. Thank you for your patience and understanding," they said in an update.

     

    American Airline cancels ground stop

    American Airlines, United and Delta had issued a global ground stop on all flights due to "communication issues", but that has now been canceled.

    Flights in the air were told they would stay in the air, but no American, United or Delta flights were taking off. According to FAA, the ground stop has now been canceled.

    American Airline cancels ground stop

    American Airlines, United and Delta had issued a global ground stop on all flights due to "communication issues", but that has now been canceled.

    Flights in the air were told they would stay in the air, but no American, United or Delta flights were taking off. According to FAA, the ground stop has now been canceled.

    Republicans trapped in Milwaukee

    RNC delegates have faced issued leaving Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport.

    The airport confirmed today they are being impacted by the global ground stop. American Airlines, United and Delta earlier asked he Federal Aviation Administration for a worldwide ground stop on all flights.

    It comes on one of the busiest days for travel, with RNC delegates leaving via the airport after the convention wrapped up last night.

      

    CrowdStrike fix may take days to work

    While there are some signs things are returning to normal, a full fix could take "hours or even days", according to reports.

    Ajay Unni, CEO of StickmanCyber, has said his team is working to help clients solve the IT issue and have "found a way to fix the issue". He explained: "In technical terms, the file is called a channel file, which needs to be deleted, they have provided step by step instructions on how that file has to be deleted."

    However, the fix might prove time-consuming for overstretched IT support teams given the fault has affected so many systems, according to ABC News.

    Warnings against self-troubleshooting

    People have been warned against troubleshooting the outage themselves, as systems remain down across the globe.

    Potential fixes have been surfacing on social media, but these can make businesses prone to malicious external hacks, according to an ethical hacker. ABC’s national technology reporter Ange Lavoipierre explained: "His advice was this is a short-term pain but if you take away your security particularly if you’re a large organisation, you are potentially opening yourself up to a much longer term problem because there are people who will look at this moment and see nothing but open doors.

    "We have to see this lack a power outage — the lights go out maybe you have to accept that there will be services that are off-line for a little while and that is very difficult and have major impacts the people, major ramifications. Trying to intervene, especially if you’re not an expert, can be a dangerous move."

     

    Travelers 'waiting to see what happens'

    With ongoing flight delays causing havoc, passengers are still showing up at airports, with some saying they're just "waiting to see what happens".

    Flights have been delayed or canceled amid the ongoing global IT issues, with American Airlines, United and Delta affected. Taking to X, one person said: "@NorfolkAirport is crowded this morning with travelers amid a worldwide Microsoft Outage.

    "American, United, Delta, and Allegiant airlines are not taking off. Travelers say they heard about the problem and waiting to see what happens."

      

    Crowds gather at airports

    Amid the ongoing chaos, crowds are building up at several airports.

    Pictures from Cleveland Hopkins Airport show flights are still experiencing delays as a result of the IT outage. Passengers have been seen standing around, waiting for updates.

    One passenger took to X to write: "Cleveland Hopkins Airport is feeling the pinch of the world-wide internet outage. There are some posted delays, many lines appear to be growing.

    Signs issue is being resolved

    Things seem to be slowly going back to normal, with some flight issues seeming to be resolved.

    One person arrived at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and reported seeing less delays and cancelations. They said: "Just got to @Reagan_Airport to check on how flights here are being impacted by the ground stoppage.

    "A few delays and a cancellation but most say on time. Still, @united, @AmericanAir, & others confirming ground stop for departing flights b/c of software issue."

     

    Sky News returns to air

    Sky News has finally returned to air after the broadcaster was affected by the worldwide Microsoft outages.

    After welcoming viewers back to the channel, the morning anchor reported on the news saying: "A major global IT outage is hitting businesses worldwide, including here at Sky News."

    The presenters referred to printed out notes during the report as the broadcaster got back on its feet.

    Panicked passengers 'stuck on tarmac'

    Passengers hoping to fly out of airports have been left stranded, with many saying they are currently left waiting on the tarmac.

    One person took to X to say: "Stuck on the Tarmac at LAX cause we can’t get a minor service card filled dude to IT system outages GLOBALLY with ALL airlines and apparently a bunch of other things. @united #outage #serviceinterruption."

    Customers locked out of bank accounts

    The global Microsoft outage has left countless individuals locked out of their bank accounts.

    The notorious Blue Screen of Death is popping up everywhere, affecting banks, supermarkets and media outlets. Meanwhile, in the US, Dr Tamara Sharf has taken to X to express her concerns about the chaos the outage is causing in hospitals. She detailed the critical situation, saying management systems are collapsing.

    Her post read: “Rumor has it EMR is down at major hospitals in NY and CA. We are locked out of Cerner here and I heard from a friend in LA that Epic is down at their hospital. 911 outage here too apparently. Is it really that widespread? What are folks experiencing?"

      

    CrowdStrike identifies issue

    CrowdStrike has identitied the issue behind the worldwide outage.

    The company say there is an issue with “content deployment” that has since had those changes reverted and has advised a workaround for affected users.

     

    CrowdStrike identifies issue

    CrowdStrike has identitied the issue behind the worldwide outage.

    The company say there is an issue with “content deployment” that has since had those changes reverted and has advised a workaround for affected users.

     

    CrowdStrike responsible for the error

    CrowdStrike, the U.S. cybersecurity company, has admitted to being responsible for the error and are working to correct it, according to ABC News.

    Cyber security firm Tesserent has said there are early indications that CrowdStrike is trying to fix the issue. Senior partner Mark Jones said: "The information that we've got back from CrowdStrike, that they are starting to disseminate through the support communities, is to just roll back the change. So that's the only the only resolution that we were getting at the moment. So obviously working through that with with clients.

    "Testing is underway at the moment, our tests, our indications reflect that it's working okay. But, depending on the environment, there might be potential issues that roll on from this but, at the moment, it seems to be working."

     

    CrowdStrike responsible for the error

    CrowdStrike, the U.S. cybersecurity company, has admitted to being responsible for the error and are working to correct it, according to ABC News.

    Cyber security firm Tesserent has said there are early indications that CrowdStrike is trying to fix the issue. Senior partner Mark Jones said: "The information that we've got back from CrowdStrike, that they are starting to disseminate through the support communities, is to just roll back the change. So that's the only the only resolution that we were getting at the moment. So obviously working through that with with clients.

    "Testing is underway at the moment, our tests, our indications reflect that it's working okay. But, depending on the environment, there might be potential issues that roll on from this but, at the moment, it seems to be working."

     

    Emergency services down

    Emergency services lines are reportedly down in Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Ohio.

    The issue seems to be related to an anti-viral update. Microsoft has posted on its social media account that is was "investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services".

     

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