global IT disruption

On Friday, one of the largest IT outages in history struck companies around the globe, affecting sectors from financial services to airlines and media organisations.

The disruption, linked to a security update from the US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, impacted Microsoft’s Windows, rendering thousands of computers and servers inoperative and causing widespread chaos.

Widespread Disruption Across Sectors Airlines and Transportation

The aviation sector bore the brunt of the outage, with thousands of flights cancelled. Major airports, including Sydney and Berlin Brandenburg, reported significant delays.

In Europe, KLM halted most of its operations, while British Airways and Ryanair warned passengers of potential disruptions.

The US Federal Aviation Administration noted that Delta, United, and American airlines grounded numerous flights, resulting in nearly 4,000 delays or cancellations.

Financial Services

Global financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, UBS, and Bloomberg, faced significant operational challenges. Traders were unable to access critical systems, impeding trade processing.

CMC Markets experienced issues with their trading platforms, and Bloomberg Terminal users reported interruptions.

The London Stock Exchange Group’s trading systems remained operational, but its news service experienced a temporary outage.

Media and Entertainment

Media companies also struggled. Sky News had to suspend live broadcasts, and Manchester United delayed ticket sales for upcoming matches.

The Paris Olympic Games organisers reported IT disruptions, adding to the challenges ahead of the major event.

Healthcare

The healthcare sector experienced severe impacts, particularly in Europe.

Schleswig-Holstein university hospital in Germany cancelled elective surgeries and closed walk-in clinics.

In the UK, GP practices and pharmacies faced significant operational challenges due to the outage, affecting their ability to dispense medicines and manage patient records.

In the US, Mass General Brigham cancelled non-urgent medical procedures.

Cause and Response

The outage originated from a security update by CrowdStrike, a major provider of endpoint security software.

The update caused Windows devices to enter a restart loop, affecting millions of computers worldwide.

CrowdStrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, stated that the issue was not a cyber attack but a defect in a content update.

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, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024

Both CrowdStrike and Microsoft worked to isolate and fix the problem, though residual issues persisted into the day.

Reactions and Market Impact

The incident has been described as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities in global IT infrastructure.

Troy Hunt, a noted security consultant, likened the event to the feared Y2K crisis, but one that has actually materialised.

This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it's actually happened this time ☠️
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) July 19, 2024

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, labelled it the “Biggest IT fail ever” on social media.

In financial markets, the outage had immediate repercussions. CrowdStrike’s shares dropped by 10%, while Microsoft saw a more modest decline of 0.5%.

The unprecedented IT outage underscores the critical dependence of global businesses on robust and reliable technology infrastructures. The incident has highlighted vulnerabilities that need urgent attention to prevent future occurrences.