A massive information technology (IT) outage has grounded flights, disrupted broadcasters, and disabled financial systems around the world.
Banks, airlines, television broadcasters, and mega-cap technology companies such as Microsoft (MSFT) are reporting major service disruptions due to an IT outage that has spread worldwide.
The problem, first reported by Switzerland’s National Cyber Security Service (NCSC), appears to be a technical update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD) that had a bug in it.
CrowdStrike has confirmed the problem and said that it is “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”
The company stressed that the problems are not the result of a cyberattack and that its Mac and Linux hosts are not affected by the problem.
Air travel has been particularly hard hit by the tech outage, with airplanes grounded, services delayed and airports grappling with stranded passengers.
In Germany, hospitals were forced to cancel elective surgeries because of the outage, and in the England the BBC children’s television channel was taken offline.
In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all flights and Microsoft cloud service customers have been confronted with blank screens and error messages.
Authorities in Switzerland said their financial systems have been disrupted by the tech issues.
The stock of CrowdStrike, a leading cybersecurity firm, is down 15% in premarket trading on news of the technology bug that is wreaking havoc around the world.
Before today (July 19), CrowdStrike’s stock had risen 118% over the last 12 months and was trading at $343.05 U.S. per share.
