Several major U.S. airlines, including American Airlines, United, and Delta, grounded flights early Friday because of a technical problem affecting their IT systems. This issue caused disruptions at airports, banks, broadcasters, and businesses worldwide. Microsoft acknowledged a problem with Windows using cybersecurity technology from CrowdStrike. The issue has been identified and fixed, according to CrowdStrike’s CEO. Some services are starting to work again, and American Airlines said it has resumed operations safely.
Here’s what to know
Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, reported on Friday that it had discovered a problem affecting Virtual Machines running Windows Client and Windows Server with the CrowdStrike Falcon agent. These machines might experience a “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD) error and get stuck restarting. The issue started around 3 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday. Azure confirmed that the problematic update has been withdrawn by CrowdStrike. The “Blue Screen of Death” is a Microsoft error screen.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday that he understands Australians are worried about the global outage affecting many services. He added that, at this stage, critical infrastructure and government services are not impacted. ABC News reported that banks and media outlets in Australia were also affected.