A worldwide tech outage crippled industries from travel to finance on Friday before services started coming back online after hours of disruption, highlighting the risks of a global shift towards digital, interconnected technologies. A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD) appeared to have triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced some broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on social media platform X that a defect was found "in a single content update for Windows hosts" that affected Microsoft's customers and that a fix was being deployed. Microsoft said later on Friday that the issue had been fixed.
Early on Friday, major U.S. airlines - American Airlines (AAL), Delta (DAL), and United (UAL) - grounded flights, while other carriers and airports around the world reported delays and disruptions. Banks and financial services companies from Australia to India and Germany warned customers of disruptions and traders across markets spoke of problems executing transactions. In Britain, booking systems used by doctors were offline, while Sky News was taken off air. Airports from Los Angeles to Singapore, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and Berlin said some airlines were having to check in passengers manually, causing delays. Government agencies were also affected, with the Dutch and UAE foreign ministries reporting some disruptions.
Market Overview:
- Global tech outage disrupts various industries.
- Airlines and financial services heavily impacted.
- Gradual restoration of services reported.
Key Points:
- CrowdStrike software update caused widespread issues.
- Major U.S. airlines grounded flights, causing delays.
- Government agencies and healthcare systems affected.
Looking Ahead:
- Restoration of services continues.
- Potential sector impact being assessed.
- Cybersecurity companies to review protocols.
As the day progressed, more companies reported a return to normal service, including Spanish airport operator Aena, U.S. carriers American Airlines, Frontier, and Spirit, Dubai International Airport operator, and Australia's Commonwealth Bank. LSEG Group (LSEG) also said its data and services were back up and running after an outage that caused some disruption across financial markets. Still, industry experts weighed the potential impact for the sector of what one called the biggest ever IT outage. "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," said Ajay Unni, CEO of StickmanCyber.
U.S.-based CrowdStrike, with a market value of about $83 billion, is among leading cybersecurity companies, counting more than 20,000 subscribers around the world. Its shares were down 14.5% shortly after the Wall Street open, while its cyber rivals were up, with SentinelOne more than 10% higher and Palo Alto Networks up 2.6%. Microsoft was down almost 1.5%.
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