A massive global technology outage on Friday, July 19, caused widespread disruption to critical services and businesses worldwide. The issue, stemming from a faulty update deployed by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to computers running Microsoft Windows, affected airlines, banks, hospitals, media outlets, and various other sectors across multiple continents.
CrowdStrike confirmed that the problem was not a security incident or cyberattack, stating, “The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.” However, the issue persisted.
The aviation industry was severely impacted, with major airlines including United, American, Delta, and Allegiant grounding flights in the U.S. Similar disruptions were reported at airports across Europe, Asia, and Australia. Many airlines were forced to switch to manual check-in processes, causing significant delays and cancellations. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, over 1,000 flights were canceled globally due to the outages.
Healthcare systems in several countries experienced disruptions. Britain’s National Health Service reported problems with appointment and patient record systems across England. Some hospitals in northern Germany canceled elective surgeries, while Israel noted disruptions to hospital and postal operations.
The financial sector also suffered, with banks in South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia reporting outages in their payment systems, websites, and apps. The Milan stock exchange’s FTSE MIB index of blue-chip Italian stocks could not be compiled for an hour, though trading continued.
Media outlets, particularly in Australia, were hit hard. National broadcasters, including ABC and Sky News Australia, were unable to air on TV and radio for hours. Some news anchors resorted to broadcasting online from dark offices, with computers displaying “blue screens of death.”
The outage even affected preparations for the upcoming Paris Olympics, causing delays for some athletes and spectators, though organizers stated that ticketing and the torch relay remained unaffected.
Ciaran Martin, a professor at Oxford University and former Head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre, described the incident as “a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core internet infrastructure.”
While CrowdStrike and Microsoft worked to resolve the issues, the full extent of the impact and the time required for complete recovery remains uncertain at press time.
Reports from the Associated Press and BBC contributed to this story.
