:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-2162635271-d31744fbea6641c489c6c8b646cbca82.jpg "Microsoft Outage Triggered by CrowdStrike Update Causes Global Chaos")
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- An update to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s security software caused an outage in Microsoft’s cloud services, disrupting businesses worldwide Friday.
- Flights from large U.S. airlines, including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and American Airlines, were grounded as they worked through the problems.
- The London Stock Exchange also said it had been hit, with a disruption to RNS, its news feed of company statements.
An update to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s (CRWD) security software caused an outage in Microsoft’s (MSFT) cloud services, disrupting airlines, banks, and other businesses worldwide Friday.
The outage sent shares of CrowdStrike tumbling 18% in premarket trading, while Microsoft stock fell more than 2% as the tech giant said the cybersecurity firm’s update of its Falcon software affected its Windows platforms.
“We have been made aware of an issue impacting Virtual Machines running Windows Client and Windows Server, running the CrowdStrike Falcon agent, which may encounter a bug check (BSOD) and get suck in a restarting state,” Microsoft said.
CrowdStrike Chief Executive Officer (CEO) George Kurtz confirmed the cybersecurity firm’s role in the outage, blaming an update “defect.”
“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” Kurtz said in a post on X. “Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.
“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”
Delta, United, American Airlines Grounded
Flights from large U.S. airlines, including Delta Air Lines (DAL), United Airlines (UAL) and American Airlines (AAL), were grounded Friday morning as they worked through the problems.
“All Delta flights are paused as we work through a vendor technology issue,” Delta said in a statement on X. “Any customers whose flights are impacted will be notified by Delta via the Fly Delta app and text message.”
London Stock Exchange Also Hit
The London Stock Exchange also said it had been hit, with RNS, its news feed of company statements, disrupted.
“RNS news service is currently experiencing a 3rd party global technical issue, preventing news from being published. Technical teams are working to restore the service, there is no impact to securities trading or other services on the London Stock Exchange,” the LSE said.
UPDATE—This story has been updated with the latest news.