Microsoft global outage: Airlines, media and banks worst hit
What's the story
A double whammy of technical glitches caused significant disruptions on Friday, impacting various sectors globally.
Thousands of Windows computers are currently facing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issue during boot.
The problem stems from a faulty update released by cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike, which has caused affected PCs and servers to enter a recovery boot loop, preventing them from starting properly.
What's affected
BSOD affects airlines, media and banks
According to media reports, the BSOD issue has affected major banks, media outlets and airlines, causing disruption at a global level.
Reuters reported that the London Stock Exchange has suffered an outage, while the US state of Alaska has warned its emergency services are not working as expected.
Virgin Australia announced a "complete ground stop" of flights because of the outage.
Service degradation
Microsoft has also suffered a global service outage today
Apart from the BSOD issue, Microsoft experienced a global service outage today, impacting millions of users of Microsoft 365 applications.
In a recent update on X, Microsoft said, "Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions."
Microsoft's cloud support page says its a "service degradation" and users may be unable to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.
Twitter Post
Take a look at Microsoft's post
We're investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services. More info posted in the admin center under MO821132 and on https://t.co/W5Y8dAkjMk
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 18, 2024
Flights grounded
Hundreds of flights cancelled in US
In the US, Frontier cancelled as many as 147 flights and delayed 212 others, according to data tracker FlightAware.
Nearly 45% of Allegiant aircrafts were delayed, while 23% flights of Sun Country were delayed due to the outage.
American Airlines also grounded all its flights because of a communication problem, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).