Please note this article is being updated on a rolling blog basis. The information shown at the top is the latest known on this case.

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12:39am – 19 July 2024

“We’re deeply sorry,” says CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz on NBC just now.

He adds that the global issues were caused by a single faulty content update and reiterates the IT meltdown “was not a cyber attack”.

“That update had a software bug in it and caused an issue with the Microsoft operating system,” he says.

“We identified this very quickly and remediated the issue.”

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12:34am – 19 July 2024

Microsoft said that the underlying cause for the global outage has been resolved. However, the residual impact of the cybersecurity outages are still affecting some of the Microsoft Office 365 applications and services.

The company did not provide any additional details on the matter.

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12:28am – 19 July 2024

Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter) and CEO of Tesla, mocked Microsoft over a global IT outage that impacted multiple sectors. Musk posted a laughing emoji in response to a meme poking fun at the disruption caused by the Microsoft outage.

The issues are linked to a problem with a tool called Falcon from the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which has led to widespread disruptions for Windows users. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and said a fix has been deployed.

In another post, Musk resurfaced an earlier comment he made in 2021, stating “Macrohard >> Microsoft”, further mocking the tech giant.

Musk has also called the Microsoft outage the “biggest IT fail ever”.

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11:52am – 19 July 2024

Troy Hunt, a well-known security consultant, said the IT meltdown is comparable to the ‘Millennium Bug’, also known as the Y2K (Year 2000) problem.

In a X post, he said: “I don’t think it’s too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history.

“‘This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time.”

The ‘Millennium Bug’ was a computer programming issue that arose in the late 20th century and it was caused by the way dates were stored and calculated in many computer systems and software programs.

In the years leading up to the year 2000, there was a major global effort to identify and fix the Millennium Bug in computer systems around the world. Billions of dollars were spent on remediation efforts.

Ultimately, while there were some isolated issues when the year 2000 arrived, the extensive preparation and remediation work meant that the Millennium Bug did not cause the widespread global catastrophe that had been feared.

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11:52am – 19 July 2024

Anthony Albanese, the Australian Prime Minister, has activated the National Coordination Mechanism in response to the global IT outage affecting various organizations in Australia.

The Prime Minister stated that “the National Coordination Mechanism has been activated and is meeting” to address the situation, indicating that the government has initiated its emergency crisis protocols to coordinate the response to this widespread technical issue. He added that no critical national infrastructure has been affected.

The National Coordination Mechanism was previously used during the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate a coordinated national approach.

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11:28am – 19 July 2024

The UK Government has called its first emergency COBRA meeting since taking over Downing Street just over a week ago following a landslide win for the Labour Party.

Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said: “Many people are being affected by today’s IT outages impacting services across the country and globally. Ministers are working with their sectors and respective industries on the issue. I am in close contact with teams coordinating our response through the COBR (Cabinet Office Briefing Room) response system.”

The Liberal Democrats had earlier today called on the government to hold an emergency COBRA meeting to coordinate an urgent response to the widespread IT outage.

Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokeswoman Christine Jardine MP said: “The public needs to be reassured that the disruption to their travel or their desperately needed GP appointments will be minimised.

“Getting critical infrastructure up and running again must be priority number one. The National Cyber Security Centre should also be working with small businesses and other organisations to help them deal with the outage. This once again lays bare the need to improve our digital infrastructure and truly modernise our economy in order to prevent the incidents from happening again.”

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11:25am – 19 July 2024

Reacting to the IT meltdown, Al Lakhani, CEO of German cybersecurity firm IDEE, said: “Many people might be thanking Microsoft for their accidental day off, but countless businesses are suffering due to Microsoft’s and their partners’ failure to maintain their services. This incident underscores the importance of businesses thoroughly researching and vetting their cybersecurity solutions before implementation. Microsoft clearly fell short in this regard, and we are witnessing a cascade of operational failures around the world as a result.

“CrowdStrike’s platform approach, which relies on a single agent focused on detection, might seem good at first glance, but as we can see, it can create significant issues. For instance, agents require installation and maintenance of software on multiple different OSes, adding layers of complexity and potential points of failure. Moreover, agents can become a single point of failure, as a bad update can compromise the entire network, as seen with the SolarWinds attack.

“The lesson here is blindingly obvious: investing in cybersecurity is not just about acquiring the latest or most popular tools but ensuring those tools are reliable and resilient.”

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11:23am – 19 July 2024

The outage has had significant financial implications, with CrowdStrike’s shares plunging 20% in premarket trading.

Meanwhile, other cybersecurity firms like Palo Alto, Fortinet, Zscaler, and Cloudflare have seen their stock prices rise, as investors bet that businesses may move away from CrowdStrike.

Microsoft fell 2.5% in premarket trading.

The global nature of the outage highlights the potential for a single point of failure in the cyber supply chain to cause widespread disruption.

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11:19am – 19 July 2024

Dubai International (DXB) Airport said it is now operating normally following a global system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines in Terminals 1 and 2 this morning. The affected airlines promptly switched to an alternate system, allowing normal check-in operations to resume swiftly.

“We’re now back to operating normally following a global system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines in Terminals 1 and 2 this morning,” the airport said in a post on X.

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11:07am – 19 July 2024

Who are CrowdStrike?

CrowdStrike was founded in 2011 by George Kurtz, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Gregg Marston and officially launched in February 2012 with a US$26 million series A funding round. From its inception, the company said it has been “on a mission to redefine security for the cloud era”.

CrowdStrike’s business model is centred on providing cybersecurity solutions through its Falcon platform, including endpoint security, threat intelligence, incident response, cloud security, and managed security services.

The Falcon platform leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to offer real-time protection and visibility across the enterprise.

According to its latest report, CrowdStrike’s client base includes more than 24,000 businesses, many of which are some of the largest groups on the planet across a diverse range of industries, including government, healthcare, financial services, and more.

Some of its clients and major partners include Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team, NetApp, Microsoft, SA Power Networks, AWS, Google, Nvidia, Tata Consultancy Services, to name but a few.

The company went public in June 2019 and in its latest financial results related to Q1 2025 published in early June 2024, it reported total revenue of US$921.0 million, a 33% increase, compared to US$692.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2024.

Subscription revenue was US$872.2 million, a 34% increase, compared to US$651.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2024.

GAAP income from operations was US$6.9 million, compared to a loss of US$19.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2024. Non-GAAP income from operations was US$198.7 million, compared to US$115.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2024.

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11:02am – 19 July 2024

Microsoft has blamed a third party after an update brought systems down.

In a statement, the cloud platform said: “We are aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming.”

In a separate statement, a spokesperson said: “We are aware of issue affecting a subset of customers. 

“We acknowledge the impact this can have on customers, and we are working to restore services for those still experiencing disruptions as quickly as possible.”

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11:00am – 19 July 2024

CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm, has identified the issue that led to the widespread IT outages affecting banks, airports, and businesses across the globe.

In a statement, CrowdStrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, said: “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.”

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10:46am – 19 July 2024

According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, over 1,000 flights have been cancelled around the world so far today, with this figure expected to grow as the ripple effects of the cancellations continue to impact air travel globally.

Several major global carriers, including United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines, were forced to ground departing aircraft early on July 19th.

Airlines such as KLM, Lufthansa, and Ryanair have reported significant operational disruptions, with KLM forced to “largely suspend” its operations. Airports in Berlin, Edinburgh, and Prague have also been affected, with passengers facing long delays and manual check-in processes.

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10:42am – 19 July 2024

The Swiss Federal Office for Cyber Security has blamed a faulty update or misconfiguration by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike as the cause behind the worldwide IT outage.

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10:34am – 19 July 2024

In the UK, television station SkyNews was unable to broadcast live for several hours. A static image appeared on viewers screen.

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10:22am – 19 July 2024

A global outage at Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is affecting banks, supermarkets, airlines, media outlets, sporting groups and telecommunications providers around the world this Friday.

Among the media outlets affected is Sky News in the UK, which was unable to broadcast live this Friday. Also in the UK, many people are having trouble booking appointments and tests on the NHS with National Health bosses saying the IT outage is “causing disruption in the majority of GP practices” in England.

According to Reuters, at Berlin airport traffic was disrupted until 8am and check-in was delayed because of the global outage, as was Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, with flights being affected.

In Spain, all airports were affected by the computer glitch. Edinburgh airport, meanwhile, is having difficulty maintaining operations, as automatic boarding pass scanners and security monitors have shown a security message saying ‘server offline’, reports Reuters, adding that boarding passes are being checked manually.

Delays related to the fault are also expected at Sydney and Melbourne airports in Australia.

“A global technical fault has affected some airline operations and terminal services. Flights are currently arriving and departing, but there may be some delays throughout the night. We have activated our contingency plans with partner airlines and deployed additional staff to our terminals to assist passengers. Anyone travelling today should get to the airport in plenty of time and check with their airline about the status of their flight,” reads the statement from Sydney Airport.

In addition, major US airlines such as Delta, United, American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Allegiant and SunCountry were grounded.

In Portugal, according to Downdetector, Vodafone, Nos and Meo are experiencing outages this Friday morning. Santanter bank and Caixa Geral de Depósitos are also affected.

In a statement, Microsoft says that it is resolving the ‘persistent impact’ of the 365 applications which are in a ‘degraded state’, and that the fault is affecting Windows computers around the world. The tech giant says it has ‘mitigation measures in place’.

‘Our services are in the process of being recovered as we take mitigation measures,’ wrote the company on the X social network (formerly Twitter). In a message entitled ‘Service degradation’, Microsoft states that users ‘may not be able to access various Microsoft 365 applications and services’.

According to cybersecurity company Crowdstrike (NASDAQ: CRWD), problems have also been reported in India, Australia and New Zealand and that the reports of faults in Microsoft’s Windows operating system are related to its Falcon sensor.

‘Thank you for contacting Crowdstrike support. Crowdstrike is aware of reports of crashes in Windows … related to the Falcon sensor,’ is heard in a pre-recorded message, according to Reuters.

Microsoft Azure, the platform for managing applications and services, confirmed the problems and said it was investigating and working on resolving them.

According to Downdetector, since last night there have been sudden spikes in incidents on various sites that include Microsoft applications.

CNN reports that in the Azure cloud software status report, Microsoft says that the service went down for some customers in the centre of the United States at around 18:00 local time, ‘including failures in service management operations and connectivity or service availability’, and that the cause has already been determined.