What is Crowdstrike? Microsoft Outage Linked to Cybersecurity Firm

A global technical outage caused problems for major airlines, media companies, banks and telecommunications companies around the world on Friday morning.

The Australian government said the outage appears to be related to a problem at cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, which is used by more than half of the Fortune 500, the US company said in a promotional video this year.

According to an alert Crowdstrike sent to its customers and seen by Reuters, the company’s software “Falcon Sensor” causes Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, informally known as the “Blue Screen of Death.”

The alert, which was sent at 1:30 a.m. ET on Friday, also shared a manual workaround to fix the issue. A Crowdstrike spokesperson did not respond to emails or phone calls seeking comment.

In a post on X, Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz said the company is “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.” Kurtz also clarified that the incident is “not a security incident or cyberattack.”

In the post, Kurtz writes that the issue has been identified, a fix has been implemented, and that the company will “continue to provide full and continuous updates to our website.” Additionally, Kurtz says the company is “fully mobilized to ensure the safety and stability of Crowdstrike customers.”

According to Crowdstrike’s website, the company launched in 2012 and currently operates the world’s most advanced cloud-native platform that protects and supports the people, processes and technologies that power modern enterprises.’

Live updates on technical outages: Global technology outage halts flights, hits banks, media companies

Flight cancellations: More than 670 US flights canceled as global IT outage causes ground shutdown

Global technical outage leads to flight cancellations and delays

Airline passengers around the world faced delays, cancellations and check-in issues as airports and airlines struggled with the disruption.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, several U.S. airlines, including American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, have suspended all early morning flights due to communications problems.

According to flight-tracking website FlightAware, more than 2,000 flights had been canceled and more than 6,100 delayed as of 1 p.m. ET. Most airlines were able to resume operations by morning, but many said they expected disruptions to continue throughout the day.

Airports and airlines around the world advised customers to arrive earlier than usual for flights. Analysts said the outage was likely related to a glitch in Microsoft software used globally.

According to Microsoft, users may be unable to access several Office 365 apps and services due to a “configuration change in some of our Azure-supported workloads.”

Microsoft said in a statement on X that “the underlying cause has been resolved,” but that there is still residual impact to “some Microsoft 365 apps and services. We are implementing additional measures to provide relief.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Friday morning that it is working with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Crowdstrike, Microsoft and federal, state, local and critical infrastructure partners to “fully assess and address system outages.”

Power outages also affect other sectors

From the UK to Singapore, the impact of Friday’s technical outages was far-reaching.

British broadcaster Sky News went off air and train companies in the UK reported long delays. Departure boards at several British airports appeared to be jammed, according to passengers posting on social media.

The London Stock Exchange reported disruptions. Some hospitals also reported problems processing appointments and several retail chains said they could not accept payments. Manchester United football club said on X it had to postpone a planned ticket issue.

In Australia, media companies, banks and telecom companies suffered from outages.

There was no information to indicate the outage was a cybersecurity incident, the office of Michelle McGuinness, Australia’s national cybersecurity coordinator, said in a post on X.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said some systems were offline due to a global technical failure. It said MTA train and bus services were not affected.

Videos show long lines at airports after Crowdstrike technical issue

Travelers around the world faced delays and cancellations as airlines virtually ground to a halt.

Contributors: Kim Hjelmgaard, Christopher Cann, Zach Wichter and Josh Rivera, USA TODAY

Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at [email protected].