On July 19th, one of the biggest Cyber outages took place worldwide. Systems worldwide went down and displayed ‘Blue Screen of Death’.
This blue screen of death affected Airports, banks, hospitals, Supermarkets, and even Disneyland Paris.
This outage was caused by the update released by Crowdstrike on Microsoft. Crowdstrike stated that they were aware of the reports of crashes on Windows related to the Falcon sensor.
Security updates caused this Microsoft outage, and in return, Microsoft closed down all the companies and services worldwide, as the majority of the companies operated on Microsoft.
However, the outage was fixed later, and all the systems started working.
How Was The Outage Caused?
Cloudstike is a cybersecurity company that provides security services to other companies, and one of its clients is Microsoft.
Cloud Strike launched a security update on July 19th. This update was rolled out across all Microsoft computers. This update did not react well with the Microsoft systems and caused them to crash which resulted in a blue screen of death.
Crowdstrike CEO confirmed that no security issue or cyber attack caused the outage.
Who Was Affected By The Outages?
Let’s take a look at the services and companies that were majorly affected by the outage.
- Airports:
Airports worldwide faced issues due to Microsoft’s outage. They were unable to update flight details, check in passengers, or print boarding passes. As a result, the majority of flights were canceled in the United States: American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines all halted their flights. Also, Dutch Airlines, KLM, suspended its operations.
At the same time, Berlin AIrport also halted its flights, while air traffic in Switzerland decreased by 30%.
- Healthcare:
A large number of healthcare services and hospitals around the world were affected by the outage.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York stated that they had to pause any procedure that required anesthesia.
At the same time, Massachusetts General Hospital stated that it had declined all the previously scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and medical visits.
On the other hand, the National Health Service in England stated that the outage affected digital appointments and patient record systems. They stated that they would use paper records and that patients must continue to attend their appointments.
- Emergency Phone Lines:
Many 911 and non-emergency call centers were not working correctly. Meanwhile, emergency services in some cities and countries were also impacted.
- Super Markets/ Malls:
Supermarkets in Australia were shut down as their checkout counters stopped working due to a Microsoft outage.
- Paris 2024 Olympics:
In Paris, the Olympic organizers faced issues as their accreditation desk was down. As a result, they had to conduct manual security checks.
However, they stated that the ticketing systems were unaffected and that the venue preparations continued normally.
What Can We Do To Avoid Such Issues?
The outage issue was witnessed only on Windows and not on Mac and Linux.
Hence, maintaining backups on alternate devices will make us more secure during outages or attacks.
Conclusion: Significant Windows Devices Out Of 8.5 Million Affected Devices Are Operational
Crowdstrike stated that they are continuously working on restoring all their systems as soon as possible. Currently, most of the devices are working, and the companies and services are back to normal.
However, if you are still facing issues, you can follow Crowdstrike’s hub to get assistance with your issue and get the latest updates.
