Users and companies from a variety of key industries around the world, including banking, aviation, media and healthcare, are recovering this Saturday after “largest computer outage” in historyafter failure in Microsoft Windows system caused by the company’s update CrowdStrike.
The outage was caused by a bug in a software update from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas, for the Windows 10 operating system that caused computers to freeze during the call. “blue screen of death”as George Kurtz, the company’s CEO, explained in X.
Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt, who runs the popular cybersecurity and online network status portal HaveIBeenPwned, said the global scale of the decline is “the largest computer outage in history.”
Call for calm: It was not a cyber attack
George Kurtz, President of CrowdStike, X stressed that what happened was not a security incident or cyberattack, but rather an isolated issue for which customers were provided support to receive the latest updates.
As explained EFE Computer experts say the latest Falcon driver update was buggy, causing an immediate outage of Azure, the cloud computing platform Microsoft built for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services using its global infrastructure.
This caused blue screens or “screens of death” to appear around the world, indicating that systems had stopped working and that The servers had to be restarted.
Kuts apologized for the interruptions and assured that Their engineers have already solved the problem. This caused a global outage, although he warned that it might take time for some customers to get back up and running.
Air transport is the hardest hit sector
The Microsoft outage caused check-in incidents, network connectivity issues and airline IT systems errors around the world, leaving their users locked out of thousands of flights.
Major global airlines including American Airlines, Delta and United have cancelled or delayed flights “all over the world,” leading to long lines at airports.
In the United States, the power outage had a huge impact, especially on the aviation and logistics sectors. More than 31,000 flights were delayed and about 3,600 were cancelled.
Several airports in Europe were damaged. This is the case at London’s Heathrow, one of the busiest airports, which has implemented contingency plans to minimise the impact on travel. Also affected are Luton, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh and Manchester in the UK, Rome, Schiphol (Netherlands), Berlin, Zurich (Switzerland) and Krakow (Poland).
In Latin America, countries such as Argentina, Panama, Dominican Republic, Peru, Honduras and Chile. They experienced minimal impact and their national and international airlines, with some exceptions, reported normal operations.
Airlines and airports in Asia and Oceania also confirmed they were experiencing computer problems. Several businesses, including airlines in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Bahrain, were affected, although mostly in a “limited” manner.
For its part, the Hong Kong Airport Authority has activated emergency response mechanism at the airport to ensure uninterrupted service to travellers.
This Saturday, Sydney and Melbourne airports in Australia announced that their computer systems were operating normally again.
Global incidents
The accident affected more than just airlines. The error also affected banks, institutions, organizations and hospitals. Even the Paris 2024 computer system was partially affected, preventing the delivery of uniforms and accreditation.
In Australia, the disruption also affected the payment system of supermarkets such as Woolworths and banks including NAB, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and Bendigo Bank.
In Japan, it caused disruptions on the railway system’s website and affected cash registers at various businesses.
Several German companies, such as Deutsche Bank or Deutsche Telekom, have faced the consequences of bankruptcy. According to the local newspaper Times of Israel, even Israeli hospitals have suffered.
In the UK, the London Stock Exchange, rail companies and Sky TV reported disruptions.
Danish rail company DSB also had problems providing its services online. Public transport was also affected in several Swedish cities, and Apotek 1, Norway’s largest pharmacy chain with more than 400 pharmacies, was forced to close today due to “technical problems.”
At the corporate level, after Wall Street closedTech company Crowdstrike fell 11% after a botched update to its security platform.
Uneven Effects in America
The global power outage has affected countries across North and South America unevenly, with the United States and Canada experiencing the greatest disruption, particularly in the aviation and healthcare sectors.
Most Latin American countries reported minimal impact, and although Mexico and Brazil reported more problems, stability in key operations remained.
In the U.S. health care sector, institutions such as the Kaiser Permanente medical system and several Houston hospitals have experienced disruptions in access to patient information, leading to canceled appointments and delays in important procedures such as transplants.
In Canada, power outages affected banks, airports and hospitals. Porter Airlines temporarily grounded all flights, and Toronto airport experienced delays due to problems with U.S. airlines operating out of the city.
In Mexico, the accident did not directly affect the air infrastructure, thanks to the use of its own systems, protected from external interference. However, there were delays and cancellations of international flights.
In Brazil, problems were reported in the service channels of some distribution companies and some instability in banks such as Bradesco, Next, Neon and Banco Pan. However, air traffic control was not affected and electricity services remained stable.