A massive technology outage has disrupted businesses and institutions in multiple countries, throwing airports, airlines, rail companies, government services, banks, stock exchanges, supermarkets, telecoms, health systems and media outlets into chaos.
The disruption was caused by an update to a product offered by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which had caused machines running the Microsoft Windows operating system to crash.
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CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on Friday that the outage was not a “security or cyber incident”.
“We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on,” he wrote on X.
“As noted earlier, the issue has been identified and a fix has been deployed.”
Microsoft said on Friday that the “underlying cause” of the global outage had been “fixed”, but the “residual impact” was continuing to affect some Office 365 apps and services.
The outages rippled far and wide, forcing some broadcasters off air and leaving customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking. Transport systems around the world among the hardest hit.
In the United States, major airlines Delta, United and American Airlines were grounded on Friday morning due to a communication issue, according to an update by the Federal Aviation Administration.
In Australia, flight information screens at Sydney airport went blank. The airport said that flights were arriving and departing but that travellers should expect delays.
Melbourne airport said that check-in procedures for some airlines had been affected.
Airports in the United Kingdom, Germany, India, Malaysia and the Philippines also reported disruptions to services.
