Widespread tech outage that disrupted global flights, banks, companies now resolved: Microsoft

A widespread technology outage grounded flights and knocked banks offline and media outlets off air on Friday in a massive disruption that affected companies and services around the world and highlighted dependence on software from a handful of providers.

Escalating disruptions continued hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.

“Multiple services are continuing to see improvements in availability as our mitigation actions progress,” Microsoft wrote on X just before 1 a.m. Pacific. The company said hours earlier that it was continuing to reroute the affected traffic to healthy infrastructure.

By the early afternoon, Microsoft noted that the issue had been mitigated and that all previously impacted Microsoft 365 apps and services had recovered.

“We’re continuing to reroute the affected traffic to healthy infrastructure,” the company said hours prior.

Microsoft 365 said users may restore their Windows 365 Cloud PC to a “known good state prior to the release of the July 19 update.”

The website DownDectector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security, Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta.

The cause of the internet issues plaguing companies and governments around the world is a tool developed by the online security firm CrowdStrike.

What is CrowdStrike?

According to its website, Crowdstrike, the cybersecurity company at the heart of the global outage, was founded in 2012 by George Kurtz, Dmitri Alerovitch, and Gregg Marston. It claims to be the most advanced cloud-based security technology provider.

Kurtz, the company’s CEO, said in a note on the site, “Our team of visionaries are the rebels who believe the current state of security is fundamentally broken and want to do something about it.”

CrowdStrike was listed on the Nasdaq exchange five years ago. It reported last month that its revenue rose 33% in the last quarter from the previous quarter and that logged a net profit of $42.8 million, up from $491,000 in the first quarter of this year.

The company partners with Amazon Web Services and its Falcon for Defender is designed to supplement Microsoft Defender and prevent attacks.

The firm said Friday’s global disruptions occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows.

Israel’s Cyber Directorate was among the groups attributing the issues to CrowdStrike.

Kurtz said the company was working to fix the problems created.

“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,” Kurtz said. “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

Flights in U.S. grounded due to outage

News outlets in Australia reported that airlines, telecommunications providers banks, and media broadcasters were disrupted as they lost access to computer systems. Some New Zealand banks said they were also offline.

Locally, some callers to CityNews reported that outages were affecting some flights at Vancouver International Airport (YVR). The airport said some delays were related to the global outage, especially affecting U.S.-bound flights and airlines.

In the U.S., the FAA said the airlines United, American, Delta, and Allegiant had all been grounded. Airports in Europe and Australia also reported problems.

A look at some of the disruptions that affected airlines and airports around the world:

Germany: Eurowings says it had to cancel German domestic flights as well as services to and from the U.K. on Friday. The budget subsidiary of Lufthansa said that its check-in and boarding processes were impaired by the computer disruption. The airline called on people travelling inside Germany to book a train ticket and submit it for reimbursement.

South Korea: Several low-cost airlines reported problems, triggering delays in passenger boardings at Incheon International Airport, the country’s biggest airport. Jeju Air Co. said it was experiencing problems with ticketing and other services on its website. Air Premia Inc. said key services on its website, such as ticket bookings, cancellations and online check-ins, were not working. The website of Eastar Jet Co. wasn’t accessible as of early Friday evening.

U.S.: United Airlines said the outage was impacting its computer systems and warned customers of potential flight delays. The carrier said some flights are resuming, and it is issuing waivers to make it easier to change travel plans on its website.

Many people took to social media to say they had been affected by the outage, with some sharing that they had encountered the “blue screen of death,” which Microsoft refers to as Blue Screen errors.

This “can occur if a serious problem causes Windows to shut down or restart unexpectedly,” Microsoft explains on its website.

“These errors can be caused by both hardware and software issues,” the company adds.

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