Wellington: A global IT outage has grounded flights, disrupted services, and affected banks, media outlets, and customers of Microsoft’s Azure and Office365, international media reported.
The outage began around 18:00 ET on Thursday (midnight CET Friday), impacting organizations worldwide.
Sky News in the UK was off the air for hours on Friday morning, and airlines like Qantas, Frontier, and Sun Country Airlines had to ground flights. Ryanair’s app and website also experienced disruptions, according to euro news.
European airports, including Berlin Brandenburg, Edinburgh, Amsterdam Schiphol, and Zurich, reported IT issues, causing delays and halted landings.
Supermarkets in the UK and hospitals in Germany faced problems with card payments and medical records. Initial reports suggest the outage was caused by a faulty antivirus software update from Crowdstrike, affecting devices globally.
Crowdstrike acknowledged repeated Blue Screen of Death errors linked to its Falcon Sensor. Further investigation is ongoing, and experts note the incident highlights the heavy reliance on and vulnerabilities in current tech infrastructure.
