- Major IT outage disrupts banks, media, airlines, and emergency services worldwide.
- CrowdStrike and Microsoft services linked to the global disruption.
- Airports and hospitals among the affected, but patient care remains unaffected.
A major IT outage affected numerous sectors globally, disrupting banks, media, airlines, and emergency services.
Major CrowdStrike outage causes disruption across various sectors
Major banks, media outlets, and airlines reported issues, with many unable to access critical systems.
Some Microsoft services also experienced significant disruptions.
In the United States, 911 services were affected in several states, and the London Stock Exchange faced operational challenges.
The situation was so dire that even Sky News went off-air, with reports indicating that the issue originated from global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
In South Africa, Capitec Bank services were severely disrupted, leaving users locked out of their accounts on the mobile banking app and ATMs.
In Australia, the outage hit several industries hard, according to reports by the country’s public broadcaster, ABC.
Hospitals like St Andrews Private Hospital and Wesley Hospital in Brisbane experienced internal system failures, though patient care remained unaffected.
CrowdStrike and Microsoft at the centre of the global outage
CrowdStrike and Microsoft were identified as the central players in the IT disruption.
While Australian authorities did not believe the outage was linked to a cyberattack, experts found the simultaneous incidents unusual. Shaanan Cohney, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Melbourne, commented on the rarity of such widespread IT infrastructure failures occurring simultaneously without any clear indicators of malicious activity.
He noted that while the incident could resemble a cyberattack, there was no conclusive evidence to support this.
CrowdStrike issued a statement acknowledging reports of crashes on Windows hosts related to their Falcon Sensor.
The company assured that they were addressing the issue promptly.