Companies across the world reported disruptions, citing technical issues from a cybersecurity software update.
July 19, 2024
Adam Satariano, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Remy Tumin and Danielle Kaye
Here’s what to know about the outages.
A global technology outage, attributed to a glitch in a software update issued by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, wreaked havoc on airlines, health care systems, banks and scores of other businesses and services around the world on Friday. The disruption, which reached what some experts called “historic” proportions, was a stunning example of the global economy’s fragile dependence on certain software, and the cascading effect it can have when things go wrong.
The software update resulted in crashes of machines running the Microsoft Windows operating system. George Kurtz, CrowdStrike’s chief executive, said it was not a security incident or a cyberattack. He said a fix had been sent out but warned that it could take some time to be put in place.
- What We Know
- Why the Outage Is Hard to Fix
- Photos
- Is Your Computer Crashing?
- How to Handle Disrupted Flights
Outage for Microsoft Users Knocks Out Systems for Airlines and Hospitals in Chaotic Day
Companies across the world reported disruptions, citing technical issues from a cybersecurity software update.
July 19, 2024
- ChicagoBy Craig Hettich/ The New York Times
![[object Object]](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/19/multimedia/19tech-outage-carousel-hwpv/19tech-outage-carousel-hwpv-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp)
San FranciscoJim Wilson/The New York Times- ManhattanOwen Davies for The New York Times
- MilwaukeeHiroko Masuike/The New York Times
- AtlantaBy The Associated Press
- MilwaukeeHiroko Masuike/The New York Times
- San FranciscoJim Wilson/The New York Times
- RomeGregorio Borgia/Associated Press
- AtlantaNicole Craine for The New York Times
- MadridReuters
- AtlantaNicole Craine for The New York Times
- QueensDakota Santiago for The New York Times
- San FranciscoJim Wilson/The New York Times
- BrooklynDave Sanders for The New York Times
- Eindhoven, the NetherlandsSQ Vision via Reuters
- Los AngelesStefanie Dazio/Associated Press
- BerlinChristoph Soeder/DPA, via Associated Press
- BangkokMailee Osten-Tan/Getty Images
- SeoulHannah Yi/The New York Times
- Kloten, SwitzerlandGaetan Bally/EPA, via Shutterstock
Pinned
Adam Satariano, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Remy Tumin and Danielle Kaye
Here’s what to know about the outages.
A global technology outage, attributed to a glitch in a software update issued by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, wreaked havoc on airlines, health care systems, banks and scores of other businesses and services around the world on Friday. The disruption, which reached what some experts called “historic” proportions, was a stunning example of the global economy’s fragile dependence on certain software, and the cascading effect it can have when things go wrong.
The software update resulted in crashes of machines running the Microsoft Windows operating system. George Kurtz, CrowdStrike’s chief executive, said it was not a security incident or a cyberattack. He said a fix had been sent out but warned that it could take some time to be put in place.
“We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused,” Mr. Kurtz said on NBC’s “Today” show.
CrowdStrike’s software is used by myriad industries around the world. Disruptions persisted throughout Friday as businesses manually updated their systems and airlines struggled to get crews and planes to where they were needed.
Flights in the United States started taking off again by late morning, and crucial services, including emergency systems, were up and running. But progress was uneven as major companies, including banks and retailers, as well as health care systems struggled to get back online. Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, said in a post on X that the company was working with CrowdStrike to help customers recover.
Here’s how the spillover effects were felt all over the world:
- Flights disrupted: U.S. airlines began restoring service on Friday after at least five of them — Allegiant Air, American, Delta, Spirit and United — had grounded all flights for a time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Travelers did not see immediate relief, however, even as flights took off, because of cascading delays at airports. By Friday afternoon, more than 2,000 flights across the country had been canceled, according to FlightAware, compared with about 900 on Thursday. But it was far from the country’s worst travel day of the year: Bad weather forced U.S. airlines to scrap more than 3,100 flights on Jan. 15.
- Global reach: The issues were also felt at other airports around the world, including in Hong Kong; Sydney, Australia; Berlin; and Amsterdam. In Britain, check-in machines stopped working. The United Parcel Service and FedEx both reported disruptions, which could delay deliveries in the United States and Europe. Customers with TD Bank, one of the biggest banks in the United States, reported issues with accessing their online accounts, and several state and municipal court systems closed for the day because of the outage.
- Emergency care: The outage destabilized health care systems across the globe, and hospitals canceled noncritical surgeries on Friday. Emergency response systems in the United States were also affected, and 911 lines were down in multiple states, the U.S. Emergency Alert System said on social media. Most, if not all, of the 911 problems appeared to have been resolved by midmorning. Kaiser Permanente, a medical system that provides care to 12.6 million members in the United States, said that all of its hospitals were affected, and it activated backup systems to keep caring for patients.
- Federal response: President Biden was briefed on the CrowdStrike outage, White House officials said. Administration officials were “in touch with CrowdStrike and impacted entities” and “engaged across the interagency to get sector-by-sector updates.”
- Largely unaffected systems: Some basic services, including major grocery store chains and public transit systems, appeared largely unaffected by the outages, at least in the United States. Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, two of the major cloud-computing platforms alongside Microsoft Azure, said that by and large, their services were operating normally.
- What We Know
- Why the Outage Is Hard to Fix
- Photos
- Is Your Computer Crashing?
- How to Handle Disrupted Flights
Outage for Microsoft Users Knocks Out Systems for Airlines and Hospitals in Chaotic Day
Companies across the world reported disruptions, citing technical issues from a cybersecurity software update.
July 19, 2024
- ChicagoBy Craig Hettich/ The New York Times
- San FranciscoJim Wilson/The New York Times
- ManhattanOwen Davies for The New York Times
- MilwaukeeHiroko Masuike/The New York Times
- AtlantaBy The Associated Press
- MilwaukeeHiroko Masuike/The New York Times
- San FranciscoJim Wilson/The New York Times
- RomeGregorio Borgia/Associated Press
- AtlantaNicole Craine for The New York Times
- MadridReuters
- AtlantaNicole Craine for The New York Times
- QueensDakota Santiago for The New York Times
- San FranciscoJim Wilson/The New York Times
- BrooklynDave Sanders for The New York Times
- Eindhoven, the NetherlandsSQ Vision via Reuters
- Los AngelesStefanie Dazio/Associated Press
- BerlinChristoph Soeder/DPA, via Associated Press
- BangkokMailee Osten-Tan/Getty Images
- SeoulHannah Yi/The New York Times
- Kloten, SwitzerlandGaetan Bally/EPA, via Shutterstock
Adam Satariano, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Remy Tumin and Danielle Kaye
Here’s what to know about the outages.
A global technology outage, attributed to a glitch in a software update issued by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, wreaked havoc on airlines, health care systems, banks and scores of other businesses and services around the world on Friday. The disruption, which reached what some experts called “historic” proportions, was a stunning example of the global economy’s fragile dependence on certain software, and the cascading effect it can have when things go wrong.
The software update resulted in crashes of machines running the Microsoft Windows operating system. George Kurtz, CrowdStrike’s chief executive, said it was not a security incident or a cyberattack. He said a fix had been sent out but warned that it could take some time to be put in place.
“We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused,” Mr. Kurtz said on NBC’s “Today” show.
CrowdStrike’s software is used by myriad industries around the world. Disruptions persisted throughout Friday as businesses manually updated their systems and airlines struggled to get crews and planes to where they were needed.
Flights in the United States started taking off again by late morning, and crucial services, including emergency systems, were up and running. But progress was uneven as major companies, including banks and retailers, as well as health care systems struggled to get back online. Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, said in a post on X that the company was working with CrowdStrike to help customers recover.
Here’s how the spillover effects were felt all over the world:
- Flights disrupted: U.S. airlines began restoring service on Friday after at least five of them — Allegiant Air, American, Delta, Spirit and United — had grounded all flights for a time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Travelers did not see immediate relief, however, even as flights took off, because of cascading delays at airports. By Friday afternoon, more than 2,000 flights across the country had been canceled, according to FlightAware, compared with about 900 on Thursday. But it was far from the country’s worst travel day of the year: Bad weather forced U.S. airlines to scrap more than 3,100 flights on Jan. 15.
- Global reach: The issues were also felt at other airports around the world, including in Hong Kong; Sydney, Australia; Berlin; and Amsterdam. In Britain, check-in machines stopped working. The United Parcel Service and FedEx both reported disruptions, which could delay deliveries in the United States and Europe. Customers with TD Bank, one of the biggest banks in the United States, reported issues with accessing their online accounts, and several state and municipal court systems closed for the day because of the outage.
- Emergency care: The outage destabilized health care systems across the globe, and hospitals canceled noncritical surgeries on Friday. Emergency response systems in the United States were also affected, and 911 lines were down in multiple states, the U.S. Emergency Alert System said on social media. Most, if not all, of the 911 problems appeared to have been resolved by midmorning. Kaiser Permanente, a medical system that provides care to 12.6 million members in the United States, said that all of its hospitals were affected, and it activated backup systems to keep caring for patients.
- Federal response: President Biden was briefed on the CrowdStrike outage, White House officials said. Administration officials were “in touch with CrowdStrike and impacted entities” and “engaged across the interagency to get sector-by-sector updates.”
- Largely unaffected systems: Some basic services, including major grocery store chains and public transit systems, appeared largely unaffected by the outages, at least in the United States. Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, two of the major cloud-computing platforms alongside Microsoft Azure, said that by and large, their services were operating normally.
July 19, 2024, 4:27 p.m. ETJuly 19, 2024July 19, 2024, 4:27 p.m. ET
This outage was unique: It started with a software update sent to PCs from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm used by many big companies.