A global Windows outage, reportedly caused by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, has impacted businesses including airlines, health services, banks, media broadcasters, schools, and supermarkets, among others.
Not just a worldwide Blue Screen of Death for Windows users, the crash has seen over 1,000 flights cancelled, the BBC reports, citing aviation analytics firm Cirium. Reports of delays at airports from Bangkok to Los Angeles, London to Berlin, Barcelona and more are pouring in.
The official X (formerly Twitter) account of the Federal Aviation Administration posted it was "closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines" and suggested people monitor the FAA's website for updates.
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American Airlines posted on X on Friday morning of "a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5:00 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation."
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United Airlines posted that "some flights are resuming" after the outage caused delays, and the company had "issued a waiver to make it easier to change your travel plans at http://United.com or the United app".
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European budget airline Ryanair also posted an update on Friday morning to travellers letting them know of service disruption and advising that those checked in could still access their boarding passes.
Reports of handwritten tickets, long waits, and technical difficulties have been circulating on social media.
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Air traffic tracking company Flightradar is currently posting flight info on X.
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Meanwhile, other major services worldwide have been affected by the outage. UK's National Health Service was also affected, declared a "regional incident" with affected services including the NHS app and GPs. Emergency services continue to be available.
Train services in the UK including Southern Railway were also affected by the outage.
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The issue is reported as related to CrowdStrike's Falcon Sensor, software designed to prevent cyber attacks.
"CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows hosts related to the Falcon Sensor," the cybersecurity company wrote in an alert confirming the outage at 1:30 a.m. ET on Friday. Just before 6 a.m. ET, the company issued another statement, per the BBC:
"Crowdstrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organisations ensure they’re communicating with Crowdstrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilised to ensure the security and stability of Crowdstrike customers."
"We're aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming," a Microsoft spokesperson told the BBC on Friday.
This story is developing...
