CrowdStrike Update Causes Largest IT Outage in History, Grounds Flights & Crashes Computers

A faulty update from cybersecurity software company CrowdStrike caused a global tech outage on Friday, disrupting operations in airports, banks, and stock exchanges and crippling computer systems for millions of Microsoft Windows users in what is being called the largest IT outage in modern history.

According to Bloomberg, the failure has been traced back to CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor threat-monitoring program, which caused affected Microsoft operating systems to crash, displaying the dreaded “blue screen of death.”

“We’re aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform,” Microsoft said in a statement, adding, “We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming.”

CrowdStrike, which is used by over half of Fortune 500 companies for cloud computing, said that the incident was “not a security incident or cyberattack.”

While affected devices and systems were mostly restored within a few hours, the impact of the outages continues to be felt around the world as airports deal with lengthy travel delays and companies assess the security risks of too much consolidation around a single system.