IT security consultant Troy Hunt called it “the largest IT outage in history,” saying, “basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time.”
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The problems are ongoing and affect users worldwide. The outage has taken down systems for everything from airlines to U.S. government offices to hospitals and emergency services. Critical infrastructure systems worldwide have been affected. Cyber experts emphasize that this is not a cyber attack.
George Kurtz, president and CEO of Crowdstrike, a modern antivirus platform, was quick to take responsibility for the issue, writing on X, “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.”
A cybersecurity expert told CNN, “I think in the next 12 hours, most organizations will get some connectivity back, but I think we’re looking at early next week for a full recovery of systems.”
“We’re seeing major organizations that just can’t function at the moment,” he added.
There’s a major global internet outage happening now with massive cyber downtime. It looks like most windows pc and servers are at risk. Stay alert and don’t run updates yet till it’s totally safe to do so 🚨
.#CyberAttack#Microsoft365#CyberSecurity#InternetOutage… pic.twitter.com/3k4FZ6keGe— Oral Ofori (@oralofori) July 19, 2024
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After cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike shipped an update to its Falcon Sensor software that protects mission critical systems, Blue Screens of Death started taking down Windows-based systems. The problems started in Australia and followed the dateline from there. TV networks, 911 call centers, and even the Paris Olympics were affected. Banks and financial systems in India, South Africa, Thailand, and other countries fell as computers suddenly crashed. Some individual workers discovered that their work-issued laptops were booting to blue screens on Friday morning.
12-hour timelapse of American Airlines, Delta, and United plane traffic after what was likely the biggest IT outage in history forced a nationwide ground stop of the three airlines. pic.twitter.com/wwcQeiEtVe
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) July 19, 2024
At 9 a.m. Eastern time, more than 2,100 flights had been canceled worldwide. More than 1,200 of those were flights operating into, within or out of the United States, according to FlightAware.com, an online flight-tracking website. More than 22,000 flights were delayed worldwide, with delays affecting more than 2,600 flights originating and/or ending in the United States.
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One IT professional told PJ Media that his government laptop is completely “bricked,” meaning it’s unusable. He said the problems associated with this could go on for months.
CNBC said there are disruptions at FedEx and UPS and some railroad systems.
Airports worldwide have been thrown into total chaos:
🔥🚨BREAKING NEWS: This Microsoft outage is now being reported as the biggest IT outage in history.
Here is a look at the Philadelphia airport filled with travelers that have had their flights delayed. There is still no proof that this was due to a hack. pic.twitter.com/AKeeFtaUep
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) July 19, 2024
Here’s what the outage looks like on affected systems:
🚨GLOBAL IT OUTAGE
– Caused by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike
– Faulty update crashes Windows
– Affecting companies and organizations
– PCs show ‘Blue Screen of Death’
– Banks, airlines, media also impacted
– Many PCs require individual fixes pic.twitter.com/vfyXTQxQFm— Anonymous TV 🇺🇦 (@YourAnonTV) July 19, 2024
Emergency alert systems are down in many areas across several states.
NATIONAL: Outage affecting 911 lines in multiple states. If you have an emergency, call the 10-digit number for your local police or fire department.
— U.S. Emergency Alert (@ENSAlerts) July 19, 2024
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President Biden has been briefed on the CrowdStrike outage, according to the White House. Administration officials are “in touch with CrowdStrike and impacted entities. His team is engaged across the interagency to get sector by sector updates throughout the day and is standing by to provide assistance as needed.”
This IT outage is a stark reminder of how dependent we are on technology and many other things that happen behind the scenes that most of us are unaware of.
Modern society and the many comforts we enjoy is a fragile thing.
Every day, we need to be grateful for what we have.
— Adam Robinson, MBA (@AdamRobinsonMBA) July 19, 2024
This is a developing story.
