Major Microsoft outage affecting users worldwide

Major Microsoft outage affecting users worldwide: After Windows machines around the world displayed errors, numerous businesses, including banks, hotels, television stations, health care organizations, and airports, are experiencing widespread IT outages that have grounded flights and caused widespread disruption.

Businesses in Australia that use Microsoft’s Windows operating system began reporting devices showing Blue Screens of Death (BSODs) in the early hours of Friday. Soon after, the United Kingdom, India, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States began receiving reports of disruptions: Sky News went dark, and United, Delta, and American Airlines in the United States announced a “global ground stop” for all flights.

A CrowdStrike software update has been linked to the widespread outages affecting Windows. Officials in the cybersecurity field claim that the issues are the result of a corrupted or misconfigured update that CrowdStrike distributed to its customers rather than a malicious cyberattack.

Elon Musk mocks Microsoft over global IT outage: In a post on the company’s Reddit forum, engineers from CrowdStrike said that the software had “widespread reports of BSODs on Windows hosts,” that it was working on the issue, and that affected systems could use a workaround. In an advisory, it also gave its customers instructions.

Up to this point, it appears that the incident is only affecting Windows-based devices. It’s not clear how widespread the problems are or how long it will take to fix them. WIRED inquired about the outage and received no immediate responses from CrowdStrike or Microsoft.

George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, released a statement about the outages hours after they first started showing up, stating that the company had discovered a “defect” in an update for Windows that it had released. Kurtz stated, “This is not a cyberattack or security incident.” A solution has been implemented after the problem was discovered and isolated. Kurtz stated in the statement that its clients should consult its support portal and confirmed that the update has no effect on Mac or Linux hosts.

Additionally, a Microsoft spokesperson issued a statement stating that the company believes a “resolution is forthcoming” and is aware of the issues associated with Windows devices. Microsoft was dealing with an apparent unrelated outage of its Azure cloud services at the same time as the CrowdStrike issues.

Global Microsoft outage hits airlines, banks and businesses: According to independent cybersecurity consultant Lukasz Olejnik, the CrowdStrike update appears to be linked to its Falcon Sensor product. The outages could result in organizations impacted losing “millions” as a result of having to halt their operations or cease business. According to the business, the Falcon system is a component of CrowdStrike’s security tools and is capable of preventing system attacks.

Olejnik asserts, “It reminds us of our dependence on IT and software.” This is the same as trusting different software vendors when a system has multiple software systems maintained by different vendors. They may be a single point of failure, as is the case here, where multiple businesses are affected.

Businesses and public services all over the world have been significantly affected by the outage caused by the CrowdStrike update. Numerous airports are experiencing delays and lengthy lines, with one passenger in India sharing a boarding pass that was written by hand. Around the world, nearly 1,400 flights have been canceled.

Various medical providers in the fields of health care and emergency services have shared news about problems with their Windows-linked systems via social media or their own websites. According to the US Emergency Alert System, which issues hurricane warnings, several 911 outages had occurred in a number of states. At two locations, the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Germany announced that some non-urgent surgeries would be canceled. More than a dozen Israeli hospitals and pharmacies have been affected, and reports claim that ambulances have been diverted to medical facilities that have not been affected.

Microsoft and CrowdStrike Outage Explained: Airport Chaos, 911 Lines Down and More: NHS England has confirmed that the outages have affected GP appointment and patient record systems in the UK. After a third-party IT system that one hospital used was affected, the incident has been categorized as “critical.” Train operators in the country have also stated that the network is experiencing delays, affecting multiple businesses.

The fact that the systems of the Paris Olympics, which are scheduled to begin next week, have been affected in a “limited way” indicates the extent of the disruption. The organizers stated in a statement that the ticketing system has not been affected and that the affected systems are connected to uniform delivery.

CrowdStrike offers endpoint detection and response (EDR) to businesses worldwide, among other services. This EDR technology scans thousands of “endpoints,” such as computers, ATMs, and internet of things devices, in real time to find threats like malicious cybercrime. More than 24,000 people use the business worldwide.

Kevin Beaumont, a researcher in the field of cybersecurity, made a post on X stating that he had seen a copy of the CrowdStrike update that had been released and that the file isn’t formatted correctly and “causes Windows to crash every time.” In subsequent posts, Beaumont states that, at least for the time being, it does not appear that the issues can be resolved automatically. Depending on the affected entity, this may necessitate a manual reboot of affected machines before they can be restored to normal operation.

CrowdStrike’s director of Overwatch, Brody Nisbet, also posted on X that the company’s workaround fix involves booting Windows machines into safe mode, deleting a file called “C-00000291*.sys,” and then rebooting normally. “Some devices in between BSODs should pick up the new channel file and remain stable because there is a sort of fix,” Nisbet posted.

This is a story in the process of being told, and new details are being added.