A massive tech outage caused widespread disruptions across various industries, including travel and finance, on Friday. After several hours of downtime, services began to return online, showcasing the vulnerabilities inherent in the global shift towards digital, interconnected technologies.
The outage was reportedly triggered by a software update from CrowdStrike, a global cybersecurity firm. This update caused system issues that grounded flights, interrupted broadcasting, and prevented access to essential services such as healthcare and banking.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz acknowledged the issue on social media platform X, stating that a defect was discovered in a single content update for Windows hosts, affecting Microsoft customers. A fix was quickly deployed, and Microsoft confirmed later that the problem had been resolved.
Kurtz expressed deep regret for the disruption, apologizing to affected customers, travelers, and others impacted by the outage during an interview on NBC News’ “Today” program. He mentioned that while many customers were successfully rebooting their systems, some systems might take longer to recover.
Experts highlighted that this incident underscores the risks 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, described the outage as a stark reminder of the fragility of the global internet infrastructure. He noted the immediate and extensive impact of the problem, calling it unprecedented in scale.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated reliance on interconnected technology companies, making such widespread disruptions more impactful. Early on Friday, major U.S. airlines, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines, were forced to ground flights. Airports worldwide reported delays and disruptions due to manual check-ins.
Banks and financial services from Australia to India and Germany also faced issues, with traders struggling to execute transactions. In Britain, booking systems for doctors were offline, Sky News went off the air, and Manchester United had to postpone a ticket release.
As the day progressed, many companies reported a return to normal operations. Spanish airport operator Aena, U.S. carriers American Airlines, Frontier, and Spirit, Dubai International Airport operator, and Australia’s Commonwealth Bank were among those that resumed normal service. The London Stock Exchange Group also announced that its data and services were back online after experiencing disruptions.
Despite the restoration of services, industry experts warned of the significant impact of this outage. Ajay Unni, CEO of StickmanCyber, one of Australia’s largest cybersecurity firms, called it an unprecedented disaster, emphasizing that IT security tools are designed to maintain operations even in worst-case scenarios, yet this outage originated from a security firm’s update.
CrowdStrike, a leading cybersecurity company with a market value of approximately $83 billion, experienced a 14.5% drop in its stock value following the incident. Meanwhile, shares of its competitors, such as SentinelOne and Palo Alto Networks, saw increases, with Microsoft shares also slightly down.
