Elon Musk mocks Microsoft over the global IT outage

Airlines, banks, and retailers are experiencing disruptions after Microsoft reported problems with its online services.

• Elon Musk mocked Microsoft over global IT outage impacting multiple sectors.
• The X owner posted a laughing emoji in response to a meme poking fun at Microsoft.
• Microsoft's issues are linked to the CrowdStrike tool, causing widespread disruptions.

Elon Musk poked fun at Microsoft over a global IT outage on Friday.

The billionaire posted a laughing emoji in response to a meme shared on X mocking the disruption. The meme's caption reads: "Everything else is down, but this app still works."

Airlines, banks, retailers, and healthcare providers are experiencing widespread disruptions after Microsoft reported problems with its online services, linked to an issue at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

The issue has left some Windows users unable to access their systems, and instead, a "blue screen of death" appears on their computer screens.

In another post on X, Musk quoted and resurfaced an earlier post he wrote in 2021: "Macrohard >> Microsoft."

James Bore, a cybersecurity expert and managing director of Bores Group, told Business Insider that the outages appear to have been caused by a tool called Falcon from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

Bore said the issue can't be fixed automatically, requiring a manual reboot.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a post obn X on Friday that the cybersecurity firm is "actively working with customers that are impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts."

He added that the issue was not a cyberattack or security incident and that "the issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed."

Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.