Earlier today a software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused a worldwide digital outage and caused major computer disruptions for services from airlines to healthcare, shipping and finance:
After the outage was resolved, companies were dealing with backlogs of delayed and canceled flights and medical appointments, missed orders and other issues that could take days to resolve. Businesses also face questions about how to avoid future blackouts triggered by technology meant to safeguard their systems.
The outage created systems problems that resulted in “grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking.”
Global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, is an $83 billion company that has more than 20,000 subscribers globally including Amazon.com (AMZN.O), and Microsoft (MSFT.O). CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz stated on social media platform X that a defective single content update for Windows hosts was found that affected Microsoft customers:
‘We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our company,’ Kurtz told NBC News. ‘Many of the customers are rebooting the system and it’s coming up and it’ll be operational.’
Later in the day, many companies and organizations returned at least partially to normal after experiencing delayed flights and disrupted services in healthcare, media, finance and other services. Although complete restoration to services may take weeks.
