On Friday 19th July at roughly 6AM UTC, Windows Computers all around the world encountered a crippling error, causing a global IT outage.
Many systems in many different industries have gone down. Some services that have gone down include
- Airports
- Trains
- Health Systems (Such as the NHS)
- News Broadcaster
- Websites
- Banks
- Emergency Services
- Insurance
What has caused this Global IT outage?
It is believed that a flawed update in the antivirus software Crowdstrike has caused this outage, and not a cyber attack. This update cripples windows systems and causes the system to crash, this includes the Microsoft azure service, which is used by companies across their entire online presence. From the Database to the actual web server. Microsoft has since fixed the issue in azure, and is now restraining the bugged update.
What are the effects of this outage?
Some airlines in the US including big airlines such as Delta, American Airlines and United have grounded flights. Whereas Airports such as London Gatwick and London Heathrow state that the issue is contained and contingency plans have been put in place. It seems that Air Travel has been the most adversely effected.
London Luton has released the below statement:
We are aware of an ongoing global IT issue that is impacting check-in and boarding procedures for some airlines. We have additional staff on hand to support and operations are continuing with manual systems. Passengers are advised to check with their airlines for flight updates.
@LDNLutonAirport on Twitter (X)
The 911 Emergency system in Alaska, USA has also been effected. Some Country’s government has also had emergency meetings such as the UK Government, due to the fact that many government systems have gone down.
British Airways has released the following Statment:
Due to the widely-reported global Microsoft IT outage, some of our flights may experience disruption today. Our teams are working hard to manage the impact of this issue as quickly as possible.
Britishairways.com
Allianz has also stated that the issue is preventing employees from logging on.
What is Crowdstrike, and what was the error?
Crowdstrike is a business cyber protection software, which includes an Antivirus. The faulty software is called Crowdstrike Falcon Sensor.
Crowdstrike has since released another update and has told IT operators around the world to fix the issue by using the following:
- Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment.
- Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory.
- Locate the file matching “C-00000291*.sys” and delete it.
- Reboot the Windows Device Normally.
