A massive computer outage brought the world to a standstill.
It all involves an issue that blocked access to Microsoft 365 apps and services, The Associated Press reported.
CrowdStrike CEO releases new statement
Update 11:44 a.m. ET July 19: George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, the company responsible for the worldwide outage, has released another statement concerning global IT issues that have impacted nearly all aspects of life.
Kurtz wrote on X that “Our customers remain fully protected” despite the technical issues brought on by a system update.
Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected.
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
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…
FCC assesses how bad disruptions are
Update 10:56 a.m. ET July 19: The Federal Communications Commission is trying to figure out how bad the outages were according to a post on social media. In addition to flights being delayed or canceled, there have been 911 outages in several areas of the country.
We're aware of reports of a systems outage causing disruptions in service, including 911.
— The FCC (@FCC) July 19, 2024
We’re working closely with other federal agencies to provide assistance and determine the extent of these service disruptions.
Federal agencies are being impacted. Social Security offices were closed since the outage shut down several services. The SSA said there could be longer than normal wait times when calling and some of its online services are not available.
The Federal Reserve, however, said that it is operating normally.
“Critical Federal Reserve Systems are operating normally. We are monitoring the situation and working closely with industry and other government agencies to assess the situation,” the Fed told CNBC.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said officials are monitoring the air travel fallout and said that passengers who are affected should visit FlightRights.com to know what airlines must do to make things right.
We’re continuing to address effects on transportation systems from today’s widespread tech outage.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) July 19, 2024
Many flights are impacted as systems recover—passengers should check with their airline for updates and visit our website for more on passenger protections.
FedEx: ‘substantial disruptions’
Update 10:20 a.m. ET July 19: FedEx said it has had “substantial disruptions” and that there could be delays for packages that were scheduled to be delivered on Friday, NBC News reported.
The company said customers should check the service alerts page for updates and track shipments on fedex.com.
UPS has a similar message that while the “network is operating and delivering in all areas, there is a potential for delivery delays due to a global technology outage.” The company said its Service Guarantee does not apply today due to the outage.
No alert has been posted for the USPS, but you can keep track of any issues here.
President briefed
Update 9:47 a.m. ET July 19: President Joe Bien has been briefed on the outage, The New York Times reported. Several governmental cybersecurity experts are already meeting at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. Administration officials are ““in touch with CrowdStrike and impacted entities. His team is engaged across the interagency to get sector by sector updates throughout the day and is standing by to provide assistance as needed.”
The president is in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, as he self-isolates after being diagnosed with COVID-19, CNN reported.
Delta flights begin to resume
Update 8:37 a.m. ET July 19: Delta said it has resumed some flight departures Friday morning, but more delays and cancellations can be expected.
.@Delta has resumed some flight departures after a vendor technology issue impacted several airlines and businesses around the world. That issue necessitated a pause in Delta’s global flight schedule this morning while it was addressed.
— Delta News Hub (@DeltaNewsHub) July 19, 2024
CrowdStrike CEO speaks
Update 7:57 a.m. ET July 19: CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz told the “Today” show in the first interview since the outage began that the company is “deeply sorry for the impact we caused.”
He said the issues have been resolved or are being resolved and impacted systems are recovering.
Reconnection may take awhile
Update 7:53 a.m. ET July 19: A cybersecurity expert told CNBC that it may take a while to get everything back up and running.
“It turns out that because the endpoints have crashed — the Blue Screen of Death — they cannot be updated remotely and this the problem must be solved manually, endpoint by endpoint. This is expected to be a process that will take days,” Omer Grossman, CIO at CyberArk told CNBC Friday morning.
Grossman called the global outage “very unprecedented.”
UK government emergency meeting
Update 7:30 a.m. ET July 19: The British government held an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the outage, CNN reported.
“We recognise the impact this is having on services and the Government is working closely with the respective sectors and industries on this issue, which is affecting services not only across the UK but also globally,” a government spokesperson said.
The new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not chair the meeting as he has “bilaterals with President Zelensky and Cabinet” but was being kept apprised of the situation, CNN reported.
Paris Olympics impacted
Update 7:15 a.m. ET July 19: The Paris Olympic organizing committee said the global outage has impacted its system, one week before the games’ opening ceremonies, The New York Times reported. “Paris 2024′s technical teams are fully mobilized to limit the impact and we have activated our contingency plans to ensure the continuation of our operations,” the Times reported.
The outage did not affect ticket sales, Reuters reported.
“Paris 2024′s ticketing systems have been unaffected. The operations around the preparation of venues is continuing normally, and work schedules are not at risk. The torch relay is continuing along its route as normal,” a spokesperson told Reuters.
Security checks were being done manually with officials using a printed list of names and the accreditation desk was not open.
“I’ve arrived in Paris this morning and went to get my accreditation validated and have been told no,” Sky Sports New Zealand journalist Wilson Catton said, according to Reuters. “They can’t issue any accreditation or anything for I don’t know how long.”
White House is aware of the issues; FAA monitoring
Update 7:08 a.m. ET July 19: The White House has been alerted about the outage.
“We’re aware of the incident and are looking into the issue and impacts,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson told CNN.
The FAA is keeping a close eye on the impacts of the outage.
The FAA is closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines. Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops until the issue is resolved. Monitor https://t.co/smgdqJN3td
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) July 19, 2024
for updates.
As of 7 a.m. there have been more than 500 flight delays in the U.S., The New York Times reported.
Hospital cancels elective surgeries
Update 6:54 a.m. ET July 19: A hospital in Germany has canceled all elective procedures and outpatient services because of computer issues. NBC News reported that patient care and emergency services at University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein were not affected.
In the U.K. general practitioners are having “disruptions” according to the British National Health Service. Offices cannot get schedules or records and receptionists are using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions.
The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with a GP appointment and patient record system.
— NHS England (@NHSEngland) July 19, 2024
If you have an appointment please do attend unless you are told otherwise. If you need help use 111 online or by phone and in an emergency call 999.
➡️https://t.co/M4QxHP2GqM
“We have no access to patient clinical records so are unable to book appointments or provide information,” Church Lane Surgery in Brighouse in Northern England said according to the AP. “This is a national problem and is being worked on as a high priority.”
Some grocery stores in the U.K. are not able to process credit cards so they’re only able to do cash transactions.
Petersfield @waitrose is among the stores unable to process card payments this morning. It's linked to the global IT outage. People have been queuing at nearby Santander for cash. pic.twitter.com/kg7v9rZwp4
— Petersfield's Shine Radio (@shineradio) July 19, 2024
Flight status updates
Update 6:43 a.m. ET July 19: Here is a roundup of domestic airline companies that are impacted by the outage:
American Airlines: A ground stop had been issued but the airline says that it has “safely reestablished” operations.
Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5:00 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.
— americanair (@AmericanAir) July 19, 2024
United Airlines: Groundstop, company has issued waivers to allow changes to travel plans.
A third-party outage is impacting computer systems, including at United and many other organizations worldwide.
— United Airlines (@united) July 19, 2024
As we work to fully restore these systems, some flights are resuming. Many customers traveling today may experience delays.
We have issued a waiver to make it easier…
Delta Air Lines: Flights grounded, according to CNN.
Allegiant Airlines/SunCountry: Issues with booking, check-in and trip-managing, CNN reported.
Frontier Airlines: The systems are being restored. Flights can be rebooked on the next available flight at no charge. Customers can cancel with credit for a future flight or can cancel with a refund.
Original story: Microsoft posted a series of tweets explaining what the company is trying to do to correct the situation, writing, “We’re working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion.”
We're working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion. More info is posted in the admin center under MO821132 and on https://t.co/Htn4qQEnsp
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 19, 2024
We're continuing to reroute the affected traffic to healthy infrastructure. Further info can be found in the admin center under MO821132 and https://t.co/Yl4tSdeglK.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 19, 2024
We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue. The latest information on impacted and recovered services will be provided within the admin center under MO821132 and https://t.co/Mx6vPz0yjP
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 19, 2024
Multiple services are continuing to see improvements in availability as our mitigation actions progress. More details can be found within the admin center under MO821132 and on https://t.co/uSHwRmYdzx
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 19, 2024
The FAA said that United, American, Delta and Allegiant airlines are grounded, the AP reported.
The issue was caused by CrowdStrike, whose CEO George Kurtz said that it was a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyber attack.”
CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
What is CrowdStrike?
CrowdStrike is a global cybersecurity firm and one of its clients is Microsoft Windows.
Its primary program is CrowdStrike Falcon, a cybersecurity platform that large companies, global banks, healthcare, energy companies and the government use.
The company, on its website, says, “CrowdStrike secures the most critical areas of risk – endpoints and cloud workloads, identity, and data – to keep customers ahead of today’s adversaries and stop breaches.”
It adds that Falcon “leverages real-time indicators of attack, threat intelligence on evolving adversary tradecraft and enriched telemetry from across the enterprise to deliver hyper-accurate detections, automated protection and remediation, elite threat hunting and prioritized observability of vulnerabilities – all through a single, lightweight agent.”
The global network outage affected flights at Dayton International Airport.
As we reported live Friday on News Center 7's Daybreak, some flights were delayed in Dayton.
News Center 7's Xavier Hershovitz spoke with travelers who were in a Delta Airlines line for over an hour.
Three American Airlines flights, one Delta Airlines and one United Airlines flight were delayed, according to the Dayton International Airport's website.
News Center 7 is also learning how the issues are impacting police, emergency services and medical facilities will have an update on everything we learn today on News Center 7 at 5:00 and 6:00.
Check back for more on this developing story.
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