A massive technology outage that occurred Friday morning has caused unprecedented disruptions across airlines, banks, businesses, and various media outlets around the world.
The issue, considered the largest collective technology outage in history, began affecting systems early Friday morning, creating significant challenges for businesses and consumers.
According to the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, the outage originated from a malfunction in a recent update the company deployed to computers running Microsoft Windows systems. This issue was not the result of a cyberattack but rather a flaw in the update itself.
While the company has since addressed the problem, the fix has yet to fully restore normal operations across all affected services, according to Fox News.
At 5:46 a.m., Microsoft posted an update on social media, saying, “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.”
Major U.S. airlines, including American, Delta, and United, were forced to ground flights globally, leading to extensive delays and cancellations. At major U.S. airports like Los Angeles International and New York’s JFK, travelers were left stranded, with some sleeping on terminal floors amid the chaos, per Fox.
The banking sector was also hit hard, with institutions in South Africa and New Zealand reporting outages in their payment systems and online banking services. Customers were unable to access their accounts or complete transactions in various countries around the world.
Additionally, Nasdaq-traded shares of CrowdStrike were down nearly 15% in premarket trading early Friday, reported Fox.
News outlets in Australia experienced significant disruptions, with many being forced off the air due to problems with communications systems.
Meanwhile, hospitals have faced challenges with appointment systems and patient management, raising concerns about potential delays in critical care.
Microsoft 365 also announced that it was rerouting affected traffic to alternative systems in an attempt to mitigate the impact of the outage. The company has acknowledged the ongoing residual effects but assured users that progress is being made toward a full resolution on the social media platform X.
As companies and services work to restore full functionality, the full extent of the disruption’s impact remains uncertain.
Analysts are concerned about the potential long-term effects on critical services, including healthcare, where delays could have serious consequences.
“There are going to be deaths because of this. It’s inevitable. We’ve got so many systems tied up with this,” cyber expert James Bore told AP News.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, DFW airport experienced extensive delays throughout Friday.
City of Dallas officials reassured residents in a statement that its technology team was actively addressing the problems affecting city services, saying, “Dallas is aware of the issue affecting many organizations globally related to CrowdStrike. The Dallas Information and Technology Services Department is actively assessing the impact on city systems and working with the vendor to remediate the issue as quickly as possible to all services.”
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz posted on social media that this outage was not caused by a cyber attack or targeted hacking. As of Friday afternoon, outages were still affecting a variety of sectors worldwide.