As queues formed at airports, TV channels went off-air, and medical appointments were postponed, antivirus firm CrowdStrike quickly became a household name after confirming that a bug in its software was responsible for IT issues on Microsoft devices worldwide.
Here’s the latest update:
- Resolution Efforts: CrowdStrike reports that it has fixed the faulty update, but it could take “some time” before systems are fully operational.
- Expert Insight: Our cyber correspondent, Joe Tidy, explains why it could take days to resolve the issues, with Microsoft suggesting users restart their devices up to 15 times.
- Flight Disruptions: Over 1,300 flights have been canceled, and many others are delayed.
- Broadcast Interruptions: Sky News was off-air for most of the morning, and Australia’s ABC faced operational issues for six hours.
- UK Impact: Trains, payment systems in shops, pharmacies, and GP surgeries have been affected. Supermarket Morrisons has resolved its earlier problems.
- Apology: CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz has expressed his “deep regret” for the disruption caused.
Signs of recovery are emerging, with some companies and services beginning to resume normal operations. We’re actively monitoring the situation and will provide updates as they become available.
If you’ve been affected by the outage, please get in touch here.