A faulty kernel driver developed by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike has caused a massive Microsoft outage that is currently causing chaos around the world. Windows machines have been crippled by the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) on a global scale. The situation is so serious that flights are being grounded, major banks are experiencing problems with their systems, while key emergency 911 services have also been affected. Here’s everything we know about this online catastrophe.
Make sure to keep checking our latest Microsoft and CrowdStrike outage live updates.
The issue was first reported by companies in Australia, following news that certain banks and broadcasters Down Under couldn’t get their Windows PCs and laptops to boot. Mere hours later, it became clear that this widespread online outage was not limited to Australia, with European firms spanning a number of industries encountering the same driver error. Reports of the issue cropping up on a major scale quickly circulated out of the U.S. and China.
The online outage was caused when CrowdStrike attempted to push through a faulty driver update, which has led to a BSOD pandemic on a scale that is practically unprecedented.
What services are affected by the Windows outage?
- Major U.S. airlines like American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines have been forced to stop departures by the Federal Aviation Administration.
- Flights are also being delayed globally, with cancellations hitting airports in New York, London, Hong Kong, Berlin and Delhi. Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport has been forced to temporarily close.
- 911 services and non-emergency calls across the U.S. have been disrupted.
- A number of major banks around the world have had their systems brought down by the BSOD.
- Broadcasters such as Sky News and medical centers in the U.K. have been unable to put out bulletins or book appointments for patients.
- A number of Microsoft 365 apps are still down.
This is one of the most significant IT outages there’s ever been, and it’s currently unclear just how lasting the damage will be. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz has tried to allay fears on X, stating that the driver fault “is not a security incident or cyberattack”. He also says that the fault behind the error has been identified and that a fix is currently being rolled out.
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…July 19, 2024
Meanwhile, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk has called the CrowdStrike error the “biggest IT fail ever”.
With a fix being released by CrowdStrike (which is based out of Austin, Texas), it’s hoped that many users and businesses will see their systems come back online quickly. However, some firms could be affected by this driver fault for weeks according to The Wall Street Journal.
Simo Kohonen, who founded Finish network company Defused, says: “The fix CrowdStrike has given is quite manual and may be difficult, in some cases, to deploy at a large scale”.
The huge online outage has already hit CrowdStrike hard, with the company that was first founded in 2011 seeing its share price drop by nearly 14%, while shares in Microsoft were down 2.4%.
The continuing chaos a kernel driver error has caused is remarkable.
