Global Microsoft outage hits airlines, banks and businesses

At airports across the globe, airline staff are scrambling to reassure customers and try to provide some clarity on when – or if – their flight might finally be able to take off. Some are resorting to paper-based systems to try to speed up the process while the IT system is down.

While staff might be able to console customers, they can do little until the computer systems are fully operational again, said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former Inspector General at the US Department of Transportation.

“The lines at certain airports are literally out the door. So it’s having a pretty big impact. People are clinging to hope that the fix for the computer problem has been put in place,” Schiavo told CNN.

But she said “you cannot fly” without a fully operational IT system. “Other than putting a bag tag on, it’s all computer,” she said.

The global computer outage affecting airports, banks and other businesses on Friday appears to stem at least partly from a software update issued by major US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, experts told CNN.

CrowdStrike told customers early Friday that the outages were caused by “a defect found in a single content update” of its software on Microsoft Windows operating systems, according to a post on X from CEO George Kurtz.

CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software — used by numerous Fortune 500 companies, including major global banks, health care and energy companies — detects and blocks hacking threats.

The company said the outage was not caused by a security incident or a cyberattack. Kurtz, in his post, said the issue was identified and isolated, and engineers deployed an update to fix the problem.

CrowdStrike’s (CRWD) stock fell 10% in premarket trading.