A major IT outage affected 8.5 million devices, disrupting businesses, airlines, banks, and even hospital operations around the world—here’s a recap of what exactly went down.
In today’s world that heavily relies on all manner of technology, losing access to this tech is a nightmare that can affect nearly every industry. This is exactly what happened on July 19, 2024: millions of devices running on Windows systems experienced what experts and the media refer to as “the largest IT outage in history.” The event affected devices in banks, hospitals, airports, and many other businesses globally, sending them crashing with blue screens.
Below, we explore what exactly caused this alarming outage and how it halted operations across these various affected industries.
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The Outage Catalyst
CrowdStrike—a U.S.-based cybersecurity software company—was the catalyst of the global outage. The company sent an update to the millions of Windows devices that “triggered a logic error resulting in a system crash and blue screen (BSOD) on impacted systems,” according to its release of technical details on the matter.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz also took to X, issuing an apology for the global outage. “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 wrote. “As noted earlier, the issue has been identified and a fix has been deployed. There was an issue with a Falcon content update for Windows Hosts.”
A Global Incident
According to Joe Tidy of the BBC, Microsoft estimates that the corrupt update affected 8.5 million devices. While Microsoft vice president David Weston states that this constitutes one percent of all Windows machines worldwide, it still had far-reaching economic and societal impacts.
In the U.S. alone, nearly 3,000 flights were canceled, with major airlines like Delta, United, and American reporting disruptions, writes Phil Helsel of NBC News. Meanwhile, 911 and nonemergency call centers in the country experienced disruptions, but resumed normal operations after the CrowdStrike fix.
12 major hospitals in the U.S. also needed to cancel elective procedures amid the outage (as their equipment and systems were running on Windows). These include Mount Sinai in New York and Cleveland Clinic, report Mary Kekatos, Sony Salzman, and Elizabeth Neporent for ABC News.
Banks in countries like Australia and New Zealand reported disruptions that slowed their operations, as clients had difficulties accessing their accounts online, according to Alexander Smith and Kevin Collier in another feature for NBC News. The London Stock Exchange reported technical issues as well due to the outage, which prevented them from publishing news, according to The Standard.
The Philippines was also not exempt from the tech outage, as airlines like AirAsia and Cebu Pacific experienced disruptions in their digital services, reports Ted Cordero of GMA News. Philippine banks like BDO Unibank (one of the country’s largest), announced that their systems were experiencing technical difficulties as well, Cordero adds in a separate article.
Cautionary Words
Kurtz also issued a warning to the public in a blog post containing his apology for the incident. As the global outage exposed many vulnerabilities across various sectors, users should look out for those trying to take advantage of weak points and anxieties.
“We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” he writes. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives.”
While this warning generally refers to IT managers overseeing the operations of institutions or companies, Tidy of BBC states that individuals should be wary as well, as they could also be targets even in the aftermath of the outage.
Banner photo by Yahdi Romelo via Unsplash.
