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TechCrunchMAY 21 2024
Businesses and institutions across the world suffered severe disruptions of their services after an IT issue on Friday.A glitch with Microsoft Windows on Friday reportedly hit global businesses and institutions, disrupting critical services — including airlines, banks, and stock exchanges — across the world.
Banks, airports and hospitals were just a fraction of those who reported outages and millions of people are believed to have been affected by the problem.The massive IT outage canceled at least 500 US flights, affected operations at London's Stock Exchange, grounded Sky News, and impacted Europe's medical facilities.
While the issue affected Microsoft 365 apps and services, George Kurtz, CEO of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, said his firm had been responsible, stating that the outage had been caused by "a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts."Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that the outage had been caused by "a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts," adding it was neither a security incident nor a cyberattack.
This outage isn't unique; such incidents have occurred in the past and will likely happen again. Software updates and bug fixes are crucial to prevent all types of cyberattacks, and ensure that systems run smoothly and efficiently. CrowdStrike is actively working with impacted customers, and there's a workaround. However, since it would need to be applied manually, this could take hours, but users' systems will get back up and running very soon.