Featured Image Credit: Nathan Howard/Getty Images
Topics: Technology, Microsoft, World News, Travel
Ella Scott
Topics: Technology, Microsoft, World News, Travel
The cause of Microsoft’s catastrophic IT outage has been revealed as the globe continues to recover from the turmoil.
Earlier today (July 19), Microsoft users from across the glove reported experiencing major tech issues.
As well as the widespread outage affecting Azure services and the Microsoft 365 suite of apps, airports were left in chaos too, seeing various aeroplanes being grounded.
Many financial services also reported issues, leaving multiple banks and businesses unable to provide their usual services.
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Moreover, some local businesses claimed they were unable to operate card readers while some broadcasters were forced off air.
Emergency 911 call operators couldn’t respond to those in need, while new driver’s licenses couldn’t be issued in the UK, according to a report by The New York Times.
The IT outage is thought to have started around 6pm ET yesterday (July 18) - but what actually happened to cause the fallout?
Well, according to Microsoft, a flawed software update from CrowdStrike was to blame.
The company - considered a global leader in the world of cybersecurity - reportedly sent an update to businesses using CrowdStrike antivirus software.
This was so their customers could be further protected against hackers and online hijackers.
However, the CrowdStrike code didn’t take to computers, servers and PCs using Microsoft Windows software and thus, chaos ensued.
After parts of the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia were plunged into disarray, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz issued an apology.
Taking to social media on Friday, he confirmed the cybersecurity company was at fault and that a software fix had been deployed.
Writing on his official X account, the 59-year-old stated: “Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected. We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption.
“We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.”
He added that the reason behind the IT outage was that there had been an ‘issue with a Falcon content update for Windows Hosts’.
In an interview with TODAY, Kurtz explained that the initial CrowdStrike update was ‘normal’ and part of the company’s usual practice to prevent security risks.
“If there’s a negative interaction with the way some of these operating systems work — in this particular case, it was, it was only a Microsoft operating system that was impacted — you’ll see a reaction like this,” he explained.
Kurtz added that once the issue had been dealt with, his company would ‘go back and see what happened’.
According to Vasileios Karagiannopoulos, a cybersecurity researcher at the University of Portsmouth, issues could ‘take days to resolve — if not weeks’.
He told the Financial Times that problems were 'so global and extensive across systems that IT support might be sparse due to the demand'.
UNILAD has previously reached out to Microsoft for further comment.