Wow! Tech workers may have woken up to their worst nightmare on Friday (July 19). A software update initiated by Mob attack caused a global power outage Microsoft overnight program. The power outage led to thousands of flight cancellations and disruptions at banks, hospitals and media outlets, According to Associated Press.
Meanwhile, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz And Microsoft addressed the global power outage in separate statements. Keep scrolling for the latest updates on the IT outage.
Here’s What CrowdStrike Did to Cause a Global Tech Outage
To be clear, CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity firm hired by Microsoft. In an emailed statement to the AP, Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw blamed the global outage on an update error. Shaw reportedly wrote, “CrowdStrike update is responsible for many Windows systems crashing globally.”
Meanwhile, CrowdStrike’s George Kurtz spoke on the ‘Today’ show on Friday morning about the global blackout. He apologized for the outage, saying that CrowdStrike was “We are deeply sorry for the impact we have caused to our customers, visitors, anyone affected by this incident, including our company.”
“It may take some time for some systems to recover,” Kurtz said. “Our mission is… to recover every customer and we will not relent until we get every customer back to where they were and we continue to protect them, and keep bad guys out of their systems.”
CEO Kurtz added that the outage only affected Microsoft operating systems globally. However, not all Microsoft Windows systems were affected.
Additionally, both companies assured the public that the issue was not related to a cyberattack. Meanwhile, Microsoft informed its customers about the situation via social media, specifically X.
As of 10:43 a.m. ET, Microsoft shared that it had “completed [their] mitigation actions,” resulting in the partial restoration of their programs.
“We have completed mitigation actions and our telemetry data shows that all previously impacted Microsoft 365 apps and services have been restored. We are entering a monitoring phase to ensure the impact is fully resolved. For more information, see MO821132 in the admin center,” their X post said.
We have completed our mitigation actions and our telemetry data shows that all previously impacted Microsoft 365 applications and services have been restored. We are now in the monitoring phase to ensure the impact is fully resolved. For more information, see MO821132 in the admin center.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 19, 2024
Impact of software updates
As mentioned, flights in the United States, Europe and Asia were grounded, causing crowded airports. Power outages also spread as far as Brazil and Australia. Health care services, including surgeries, were disrupted. 911 service was down. Additionally, some TV stations in the United States were unable to broadcast their local news this morning, according to the AP.
The outage shows how fragile the global digital ecosystem is, according to Oxford University professor and former cybersecurity expert Ciaran Martin.
“This is a very, very painful illustration of the fragility of the world’s core internet infrastructure,” she told the AP.
While some of these issues are slowly being resolved, many predict it will take time and could cost lives, especially as procedures at hospitals and police stations are disrupted.
Other cybersecurity experts cited by the AP predicted that getting all systems back online would take more than a few hours and could stretch into days. CrowdStrike shares were reported down 10 percent early Friday morning.
This is a growing story.
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