Microsoft Systems ‘Update’ Causes Worldwide Disruptions At Airports, Banks, Hospitals & More

Microsoft Systems ‘Update’ Causes Worldwide Disruptions At Airports, Banks, Hospitals & More

A tech outage in certain Microsoft systems has grounded thousands of flights and interrupted operations at numerous businesses worldwide.

According to reports, an update sparked tech outages at different locations across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, igniting concern about the vulnerability of a society reliant on digital communications.

Reportedly, the incident began taking effect early morning today (Friday, July 19th). Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, who provides cloud workload protection and endpoint security for certain Microsoft Windows systems, has taken responsibility for the issue, claiming that an update they sent out appears to have triggered systems problems.

This mishap has reportedly kept thousands of flights from going out, as airport customers have been unable to access check-in and booking services. Additionally, reports state the issue has prevented some local TV stations from airing news broadcasts and left certain individuals without access to banking and healthcare services. Some doctors’ offices have reported problems with their appoint systems and have been forced to cancel non-urgent surgeries.

Despite concern over the ordeal, CrowdStrike has insisted that the situation is not the result of hacking or cyberattack. However, that hasn’t kept some industry professionals from denouncing use of their service. Billionaire entrepreneur and X (formerly Twitter) CEO Elon Musk announced the platform will no longer be using CrowdStrike. Responding to one user questioning the roll-out of their partnership, Elon Musk wrote:

“We just deleted CrowdStrike from all our systems, so no rollouts at all” 

While CrowdStrike reportedly hoped to have the problem corrected already, it seems their efforts fix the issue have persisted.

[VIA]

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