A massive technology outage caused by a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has disrupted operations across multiple countries, affecting a wide range of sectors including airports, airlines, rail companies, government services, banks, stock exchanges, supermarkets, telecoms, health systems, and media outlets. The issue, linked to CrowdStrike’s Falcon sensor product, led to machines running Microsoft Windows to crash, resulting in the “blue screen of death” error and locking users out of their operating systems. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz emphasized that this was not a security or cyber incident and assured that a fix had been deployed.
The impact of the outage was widespread, grounding major airlines like Delta, United, and American Airlines in the United States and causing delays at airports in Australia, the UK, Germany, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Spain. Financial institutions and stock exchanges also reported disruptions, with Australia’s Commonwealth Bank and the London Stock Exchange being notably affected. Government services and media companies experienced significant interruptions, including Sky News in the UK going off air temporarily. While many services are beginning to return to normal, the incident has highlighted vulnerabilities in global IT infrastructure and the widespread reliance on third-party software platforms.
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