Massive IT Outage Hits Businesses Worldwide

Businesses worldwide witnessed disruptions due to a major IT outage. The global outage has affected various sectors, including airlines, the stock market, banking operations, media houses, and emergency services. Reports indicate that a software update from CrowdStrike appears to have inadvertently disrupted IT systems worldwide. According to TechCrunch, the cyber security firm's software is widely used across enterprises for managing security on Windows devices and servers.

CrowdStrike’s chief executive, George Kurtz, said in a post on X that they are actively working with customers impacted by a "defect found in a single content update" for Windows hosts. George Kurtz also noted that it 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," George Kurtz added in the post. 

On Friday, firms in Australia running Microsoft’s Windows operating system started reporting devices showing Blue Screens of Death (BSODs), according to Wired. Later, reports of disruptions started emerging from various parts of the world. Notably, Sky News in the UK was not able to broadcast live TV due to the outage. Airlines and airports in various countries, like the US and India, witnessed delays due to the issue. Major US carriers issued ground stop due to the outage. Several services in India also faced disruptions on Friday as the outage impacted airlines including IndiGo, Akasa Air, and SpiceJet.