Banks, airports, TV stations, hotels, and countless other businesses are all facing widespread IT outages, leaving flights grounded and causing widespread disruption, after Windows machines have displayed errors worldwide.
In the early hours of Friday, companies in Australia running Microsoft’s Windows operating system started reporting devices showing Blue Screens of Death (BSODs). Shortly after, reports of disruptions started flooding in from around the world, including from the UK, the Netherlands, and the US: TV station Sky News went offline, and US airlines United, Delta, and American Airlines issued a “global ground stop” on all flights.
The widespread Windows outages have been linked to a software update from cybersecurity giant Crowdstrike. It is not believed the issues are linked to a malicious cyberattack. Engineers from the company posted to the company’s Reddit forum that it has seen “widespread reports of BSODs on Windows hosts” occurring across its software, is working on the problem, and has advised a workaround for impacted systems.
The incident, so far, appears to only be impacting devices running Windows and not other operating systems. It is unclear exactly how widespread the issues are and how long they will take to resolve. Microsoft and Crowdstrike did not immediately respond to WIRED’s requests for comment on the outage.
However, the incident could result in “millions” being lost by organizations impacted who have had to halt their operations or stop business, says Lukasz Olejnik, an independent cybersecurity consultant, who says the Crowdstrike update appears to be linked to its Falcon Sensor product. The Falcon system is part of Crowdstrike’s security tools and can block attacks on systems, according to the company.
“It reminds us about our dependence on IT and software,” Olejnik says. “When a system has several software systems maintained by various vendors, this is equivalent to placing trust on them. They may be a single point of failure—like here, when various firms feel the impact.”
This is a developing story and is being updated with new information.