A global IT outage has disrupted the normal operations of airports and banks worldwide. This blackout forced numerous airlines to suspend all their flights globally, while several financial institutions’ ATMs ceased to function, preventing users from withdrawing cash. This incident, triggered by a faulty update to the CrowdStrike Falcon security platform—the primary protection system for Windows—might lead to severe consequences for many renowned multinational companies.
The recent update to Falcon’s drivers contained errors, which immediately crashed Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications using its global infrastructure. This resulted in widespread "blue screens of death" indicating system failures worldwide.
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Early Friday, Microsoft announced it was investigating an issue affecting users’ ability to access various Microsoft 365 applications and services. A statement released yesterday clarified that the Azure service was down for some customers in the United States, and the cause had been identified, with efforts underway to resolve it.
CrowdStrike Falcon’s CEO, George Kurtz, addressed the global IT blackout, stating that "we are actively working with affected customers due to a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are unaffected," through a post on the social media platform X.
The outage impacted several major U.S. airlines, including Delta, United, and American Airlines. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) noted that "it affected all flights from U.S. airlines" and mentioned they were undergoing system updates to restore normalcy.
These airlines have suspended all scheduled departures, with the FAA citing "communication issues" without specifying how long the planes would remain grounded. It was also noted that "their website was unavailable due to an issue with Microsoft Azure, the tech giant’s cloud software."
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On Friday, United Airlines reported in a circular that "a third-party software interruption is affecting computer systems worldwide, including United. While we work to restore these systems, all aircraft are being held at their departure airports. Flights that have already taken off are continuing to their destinations," following the FAA’s announcement halting several major U.S. airlines.
Beyond the United States, various British airlines, the London Stock Exchange, railway companies, and the Sky TV network experienced interruptions in their operations due to this widespread technological failure. The London Stock Exchange stated that "its news service is experiencing a global third-party technical issue, preventing the publication of news on its website," although other services, including trading, remained operational.
Regarding banking institutions, monitoring software Downdetector reported that "Australian telecommunications companies such as ANZ, Westpac, Visa, and Optus were also affected."
"Argentina is faring comparatively better than the global powers"
Cybersecurity expert Marcos Mansueti noted that "so far, Argentina is faring better than the global powers because the software causing the failure is very expensive and scarcely used in the country."
In an interview with radio journalist Marcelo Longobardi, Mansueti clarified that "it’s a very costly antivirus solution that is malfunctioning, it’s not cheap, and this update caused a failure that prevents operating systems from booting properly."
