Banks, airlines, television networks, and health systems worldwide that rely on Microsoft 365 apps reported widespread outages Friday. Thousands of flights and train services were canceled in the U.S. and Europe, and many other public and retail services around the world were disrupted.
What caused the global Microsoft outages?
The issue stemmed from a technical problem identified by CrowdStrike, a global cybersecurity firm providing Microsoft with antivirus software for its Windows devices.
“The underlying cause has been fixed; however, residual impact is continuing to affect some Microsoft 365 apps and services. We’re conducting additional mitigations to provide relief,” Microsoft stated on social media.
When CBS News contacted CrowdStrike’s technical support line on Friday, a pre-recorded message confirmed awareness of crashes on Microsoft systems linked to its Falcon Sensor software.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz, in a statement shared Friday with CBS News and on social media, said, “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 and isolated, and a fix has been deployed.”
What has been affected by the Microsoft outages?
In the U.S., over 1,000 flights were canceled early Friday morning, with more than 1,700 delayed. Globally, over 15,000 flights were delayed, with the number expected to rise.
American Airlines, Delta, United Airlines, and Spirit Airlines grounded all pending flight departures. However, American Airlines, United, and Delta resumed some flight departures later Friday morning.
“We are resuming some flights but expect schedule disruptions to continue throughout Friday,” United Airlines stated.
In Europe, Lufthansa, KLM, and SAS Airlines reported disruptions. Switzerland’s largest airport, in Zurich, halted plane landings, according to BBC News.
In India, manual operations were conducted at Delhi’s primary airport, with no electric check-in terminals functioning and gate information updated by hand on a whiteboard, as reported by the BBC.
Hospitals in Germany canceled elective surgeries Friday, and doctors in the U.K. faced issues accessing their online booking system. Pharmacists in the U.K. reported disruptions in medicine deliveries and prescription access.
Britain’s Sky News and the BBC’s children’s TV network went off the air on Friday. Sky resumed broadcasting with presenters reading from printed notes rather than teleprompters.
The London Stock Exchange’s regulatory news service was disrupted, although trading was not affected.
When will the Microsoft outages be fixed?
New Zealand’s acting prime minister, David Seymour, stated on social media that officials were working hard to understand the impacts of the outages.
“I have not received any reporting to indicate these issues are related to malicious cyber security activity,” Seymour noted.
A spokesman for Germany’s interior ministry also confirmed there was no indication of a cyberattack causing the outages.
Despite CrowdStrike’s fix, some problems will likely take time to resolve, according to Omer Grossman, Chief Information Officer at identity security firm CyberArk. The issue involves Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) products running on individual client computers.
“Because the endpoints have crashed — the Blue Screen of Death — they cannot be updated remotely, and the problem must be solved manually, endpoint by endpoint. This is expected to be a process that will take days,” Grossman explained.
