A massive global tech outage on Friday disrupted a wide range of industries, from travel to finance, before services gradually began to resume. The incident highlights the risks associated with the world’s increasing reliance on interconnected digital technologies.
The outage was triggered by a problematic software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD.O), which appeared to affect systems running Microsoft Windows (MSFT.O). The disruption led to grounded flights, broadcasting failures, and interruptions in essential services such as healthcare and banking.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz addressed the issue on the social media platform X, stating that a defect was found “in a single content update for Windows hosts” and that a fix was being implemented. “We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our company,” Kurtz told NBC News’ “Today” program. He added, “Many of the customers are rebooting the system and it’s coming up and it’ll be operational. It could be some time for some systems that won’t automatically recover.”
Despite efforts to restore services, experts warned that the outage exposed the vulnerabilities of an increasingly online world. Ciaran Martin, a professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and former head of the UK National Cyber Security Centre, commented, “This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core Internet infrastructure.” Martin noted that while the core problem seemed straightforward, its immediate impact was significant. “I’m struggling to think of an outage at quite this scale,” he said.
The global reliance on a handful of interconnected technology companies has intensified over the past two decades, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This interconnectedness explains why a single software issue could have such widespread effects.
Major U.S. airlines, including American Airlines (AAL.O), Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), and United Airlines (UAL.O), grounded flights early Friday. Similar disruptions were reported by other carriers and airports worldwide, leading to delays and manual check-ins. Banks and financial services from Australia to India and Germany experienced transaction difficulties, with one trader calling it “the mother of all global market outages.”
In the UK, booking systems for doctors went offline, and Sky News, a major broadcaster, was forced off-air, apologizing for the disruption. Manchester United also announced the postponement of a scheduled ticket release. Airports in cities like Los Angeles, Singapore, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and Berlin reported significant delays as some airlines struggled with manual check-ins. Government agencies in the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates also faced disruptions.
As the day progressed, many companies began to restore normal services. Spanish airport operator Aena (AENA.MC), U.S. carriers American Airlines, Frontier, and Spirit (SAVE.N), Dubai International Airport, and Australia’s Commonwealth Bank (CBA.AX) reported a return to normal operations. The LSEG Group (LSEG.L) also announced that its data and services were back online after experiencing some financial market disruptions.
Despite the recovery efforts, industry experts are evaluating the potential long-term impact of what is being called the largest IT outage in history. Ajay Unni, CEO of StickmanCyber, one of Australia’s largest cybersecurity services firms, remarked, “IT security tools are all designed to ensure that companies can continue to operate in the worst-case scenario of a data breach, so to be the root cause of a global IT outage is an unmitigated disaster.”
CrowdStrike, with a market value of approximately $83 billion and over 20,000 global subscribers, saw its shares drop by 14.5% shortly after the Wall Street open. In contrast, its cybersecurity competitors saw gains, with SentinelOne up more than 10% and Palo Alto Networks up 2.6%. Microsoft shares fell nearly 1.5%.
Si Venus L Peñaflor ay naging editor-in-chief ng Newsworld, isang lokal na pahayagan ng Laguna. Publisher din siya ng Daystar Gazette at Tutubi News Magazine. Siya ay isa ring pintor at doll face designer ng Ninay Dolls, ang unang Manikang Pilipino. Kasali siya sa DesignCrowd sa rank na #305 sa 640,000 graphic designers sa buong daigdig. Kasama din siya sa unang Local TV Broadcast sa Laguna na Beyond Manila. Aktibong kasapi siya ng San Pablo Jaycees Senate bilang isang JCI Senator.
