A software update wreaked havoc on computer systems globally on Friday, grounding flights, forcing some broadcasters off air and hitting services from banking to healthcare.
An update to a product offered by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, opens new tab appeared to be the trigger, affecting customers using Microsoft’s Windows Operating System. Microsoft said later on Friday the issue had been fixed.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on social media platform X that the company was “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts” and that a fix was being deployed.
“This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” Kurtz said in the post.
Early on Friday, major U.S. airlines – American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines – grounded flights, while other carriers and airports around the world reported delays and disruptions.
Banks and financial services companies from Australia to India and Germany warned customers of disruptions and traders across markets spoke of problems with executing transaction.
“We are having the mother of all global market outages,” one trader said.
In Britain, booking systems used by doctors were offline, multiple reports posted on X by medical officials said, while Sky News, one of the country’s major news broadcasters was off air, apologising for being unable to transmit live, and soccer club Manchester United said on X that it had to postpone a scheduled release of tickets.
