Global IT chaos returning to stability after CrowdStrike's stumble
New York City
Businesses and services worldwide are slowly recovering from reportedly the worstIT outage in historythat disrupted computer systems for hours between July 18 and 19.
The outage, caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, heavily impacted industries including banks, hospitals, and airlines.
CrowdStrike's CEO, George Kurtz, issued an apology for the disruption and confirmed that a fix had been deployed. But it might take "some time" for all systems to be fully operational again.
Airline services are gradually returning to normal after thousands of flights were canceled. But operators are still expectingthat delays and cancellations will continue through the weekend. Many businesses are contending with backlogs and missed orders, which may take days to resolve.
Health services in Britain, Israel, and Germany were also affected, following which a number of scheduled surgeries were cancelled.
The global chaos has raised concerns about the vulnerability of interconnected technologies and the potential for a single software glitch to cause widespread disruption.
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Global IT outage: What happened?
The issue began at 19:00 GMT on Thursday (July 18) and affected Windows users running CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity software.
While the full extent of the problem became evident by Friday (July 19) morning, the situation began to improve by Friday evening. Many airports reported ongoing issues with check-in and payment systems but most flights were operating.
Also watch |I.T. outage disrupts flights, banks, and media outlets around the world
In the financial sector, JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the US, is working to restore ATM services.
According to the website Downdetector, which tracks tech issues, the number of affected sites in the UK, India and southeast Asiadecreased by the end of the day.
CrowdStrike's CEO George Kurtz explained on social media platform X that the problem was due to a defect in "a single content update for Windows hosts."
"We're deeply sorry for the impact that we've caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our company," Kurtz told NBC.
"Many of the customers are rebooting the system and it's coming up and it'll be operational. It could be some time for some systems that just automatically won't recover, but it is our mission... to make sure every customer is fully recovered," he said.