Microsoft-CrowdStrike issue causes ‘largest IT outage in history’

FTC
Chair
Lina
Khan
weighed
in
on
the
ongoing
CrowdStrike
outage
in

a
series
of
posts
on
X
on
Friday.
Without
mentioning
CrowdStrike
or
Microsoft,
she
appeared
to
blame
the
outage
on
concentrated
market
power,
which
creates
“fragile
systems,”
she
wrote.

“Concentrating
production
can
concentrate
risk,
so
that
a
single
natural
disaster
or
disruption
has
cascading
effects,”
Khan
wrote
in
the
series
of
posts.

Khan
did
not
announce
an
FTC
investigation
of
the
incident,
but
she
linked
to
unrelated
past
actions
she
has
taken,
including
opening
up
a
query
on
cloud
computing
companies,
and
seeking
public
comment
on
companies
that
frequently
buy
smaller
competitors,
like
in
the
technology
industry.

—
Kif
Leswing

Some


Amazon
warehouses
in
the
U.S.
were
grappling
with
disruptions
set
off
by
the
global
IT
outage.

Three
Amazon
warehouse
staffers
said
the
outage
took
down
an
app
used
by
employees
to
manage
their
schedules
and
submit
time
off
requests,
called
A
to
Z,
early
Friday
morning,
though
it
has
since
been
restored
in
some
areas.
The
employees
asked
to
remain
anonymous
because
they
weren’t
authorized
to
speak
publicly
about
the
situation.

The
outage
also
disrupted
some
Amazon
employees’
ability
to
access
an
internal
service
called
“Anytime
Pay,”
which
allows
staffers
to
withdraw
earnings
before
their
next
paycheck.
“Anytime
Pay
is
unavailable
due
to
a
global
outage
impacting
users
to
access
internal
IT
services,”
according
to
a
notice
on
Amazon’s
internal
payroll
site
for
warehouse
staffers,
which
was
viewed
by
CNBC.

At
some
sites,
operations
were
briefly
halted.
An
Amazon
warehouse
worker
in
South
Carolina,
who
asked
to
remain
anonymous,
said
their
site
passed
the
time
by
performing
karaoke
in
exchange
for
“cola
cash,”
or
credits
that
can
be
used
to
purchase
snacks
and
drinks
at
the
facility.

The
disruptions
also
touched
Amazon’s
trucking
operations.
Truck
drivers
who
use
Relay,
a
platform
that
lets
them
book
jobs
moving
Amazon
cargo,
said
they
were
briefly
unable
to
pick
up
loads
at
Amazon
warehouses
due
to
system
issues.

“Everything
was
bluescreened,”
said
Dwight
Evitt,
a
truck
driver
in
San
Marcos,
Texas.

Representatives
from
Amazon
didn’t
respond
to
requests
for
comment.

—
Annie
Palmer

CrowdStrike
CEO
George
Kurtz

apologized
in
a
blog
post
for
the
global
outage
Friday
and
reiterated
that
his
company
is
working
closely
with
impacted
customers
and
partners
to
restore
all
systems.

Kurtz
encouraged
customers
to
“remain
vigilant”
in
ensuring
they
engage
with
official
CrowdStrike
representatives
as
they
seek
support.

“We
know
that
adversaries
and
bad
actors
will
try
to
exploit
events
like
this,”
he
wrote.

He
added
that
the
company’s
blog
and
technical
support
portal
will
remain
the
official
channels
for
updates.

Kurtz
reiterated
the
outage
was
caused
by
a
defect
in
a
Falcon
content
update
for
Windows
hosts,
and
Mac
and
Linux
hosts
were
not
impacted.
He
emphasized
again
that
the
outage
was
not
caused
by
a
security
breach
or
cyberattack.

“As
we
resolve
this
incident,
you
have
my
commitment
to
provide
full
transparency
on
how
this
occurred
and
steps
we’re
taking
to
prevent
anything
like
this
from
happening
again,”
he
wrote.

—
Katie
Bartlett

Railroad
Union
Pacific
is
now
back
to
full
capacity
after
facing
processing
delays
and
“varying
levels
of
impact”
earlier
Friday.

“The
vast
majority
of
our
customers’
freight
is
moving
and
full
fluidity
is
returning
to
our
network
after
this
morning’s
CrowdStrike
software
outage,”
Union
Pacific
told
CNBC.
“In
response
to
the
outage
our
teams
swiftly
implemented
protocols
and
communication
plans,
which
allowed
us
to
safely
keep
our
trains
running.”

—
Ece
Yildirim

At
CommonSpirit
Health,
which
provides
care
across
150
hospitals
in
24
states,
employees
noticed
that
many
of
the
health
systems’
desktop
computers
were
displaying
a
blue
error
screen
in
the
early
hours
of
Friday
morning.

The
health
system
has
tens
of
thousands
of
computers,
and
they
serve
as
a
“window”
into
all
of
the
organization’s
other
systems,
Daniel
Barchi,
CIO
at
CommonSpirit,
told
CNBC.

“It’s
the
way
our
physicians
who
are
doing
surgery
have
access
to
the
images
that
have
been
made
on
a
patient’s
MRI,”
Barchi
said.
“It’s
the
way
the
nurse
knows
which
drugs
to
give
to
the
patient.”

Barchi
said
the
disruption
was
deemed
a
“priority
one
event,”
and
that
he
and
other
senior
IT
leaders
began
working
to
identify
the
issue
around
2
a.m.
They
determined
the
problem
was
related
to
an
update
that
CrowdStrike
had
pushed
out,
and
they
were
able
to
contain
it
before
it
had
finished
rolling
out
to
all
the
computers
within
CommonSpirit.

But
though
some
computers
remained
operational,
the
compromised
computers
must
be
fixed
manually,
one
by
one.

“We
were
all
stunned
by
the
fact
that
if
a
computer
gets
this
blue
screen
lock
up,
there’s
no
way
to
push
a
software
patch
to
fix
it,”
he
said.
“You
literally
have
to
go
up
to
it,
login
as
an
administrator,
a
technology
person,
and
then
delete
a
line
of
code
and
make
that
enabled
to
come
back
online.”

Barchi
said
CommonSpirit
has
managed
to
bring
many
of
its
computers
back
online,
and
many
hospitals
are
returning
to
business
as
usual.
The
health
system
will
continue
its
remediation
process
and
work
to
fix
its
servers
through
the
rest
of
the
day,
he
said.

—
Ashley
Capoot

Electric
vehicle
maker


Tesla
temporarily
halted
production
on
lines
at
some
of
its
manufacturing
facilities
on
Friday
after
an
unprecedented
IT
outage
impacted
global
operations
due
to
system
issues
at
cybersecurity
firm


CrowdStrike.

According
to
correspondence
obtained
by
CNBC,
Tesla’s
IT
teams
notified
employees
that
there
was
a
“windows
host
outage,”
and
different
systems
were
affected
including
“servers,
laptops
and
manufacturing
devices.”
The
IT
teams
informed
Tesla
employees
that
they
may
see
a
“blue
screen”
on
their
various
devices.

Tesla
CEO

Elon
Musk,
who
also
owns
social
media
platform
X,
posted
several
complaints
about
the
CrowdStrike
outages
to
his
account,
which
has
more
than
190
million
followers,
throughout
the
morning.

Two
Tesla
employees
who
spoke
with
CNBC,
but
asked
to
remain
unnamed
because
they
were
not
authorized
to
speak
on
behalf
of
the
company,
said
that
some
manufacturing
lines
were
slow
to
start
on
Friday
morning,
and
others
were
temporarily
halted
in
California
and
Nevada.
They
also
said
managers
were
telling
some
workers
to
prepare
for
canceled
shifts
or
to
go
home
early.

Business
Insider,
which
first
reported
on
the
IT
memo,
wrote
that
workers
in
Tesla’s
Texas
vehicle
assembly
plant
were
sent
home
overnight
in
response
to
the
outages
as
well.

As
a
key
Tesla
vendor,


Microsoft,
scrambled
to
restore
its
apps
and
services
Friday
morning,
CEO
Satya
Nadella
wrote
in
a
statement
on
X
that
an
update
from
CrowdStrike
on
Thursday
impacted
global
IT
systems.

In
replies
to
Nadella
on
X,
Musk
wrote
that
the
outages
had
caused
a
“seizure”
to
the
automotive
supply
chain,
adding,
“We
just
deleted
CrowdStrike
from
all
our
systems,
so
no
rollouts
at
all.”

Employees
confirmed
that
Tesla
was
using
CrowdStrike
as
of
Friday.

Tesla
shares
were
down
more
than
3%
in
afternoon
trading
on
Friday.
Tesla
did
not
immediately
respond
to
a
request
for
further
information.

—
Lora
Kolodny

The
outage
has
also
halted
the
ability
to
order


Starbucks
through
its
mobile
app.

The
issue
has
caused
chaos
for
baristas
and
other
Starbucks
employees,
leading
to
temporary
store
closures
and
frantic
posts
online
seeking
assistance.

At
some
stores,
employees
created
various
handwritten
signs
for
customers,
announcing
store
closures
or
asking
customers
to
walk
up
or
show
an
employee
a
mobile
receipt.

Read
the
full
story
here.

—
Kat
Tenbarge,
NBC
News

Nearly
4%
of
all
scheduled
flights
around
the
world
have
been
cancelled
due
to
the
disruption,
according
to
new
data
from
the
aviation
analytics
firm
Cirium
on
Friday.
The
firm
said
4,295
flights
had
been
cancelled
as
of
12
p.m.
ET.

In
the
U.K.,
4.6%
of
all
scheduled
departures,
or
143
flights,
have
been
cancelled,
according
to
Cirium.
Around
140
inbound
arrivals
have
also
been
cancelled.

—
Ashley
Capoot

Video
from
flight
tracker

Flightradar24
shows
how
passenger
flights
over
the
U.S.
were
affected
during
the

early
morning
hours
after
a
global
IT
outage
hit
airlines
and
airport
services
nationwide.

—

Gabriel
Cortes,
Riya
Bhattacharjee

Microsoft
CEO
Satya
Nadella
said
that
the
company
was
working
with


CrowdStrike
to
address
the
global
outage.

“We
are
aware
of
this
issue
and
are
working
closely
with
CrowdStrike
and
across
the
industry
to
provide
customers
technical
guidance
and
support
to
safely
bring
their
systems
back
online,”
Nadella
said
in
a
post
on
X.

CrowdStrike
and
Microsoft
have
had
an
adversarial
relationship,
since
CrowdStrike
does
a
brisk
business
pitching
clients
on
its
ability
to
address
vulnerabilities
in
Microsoft’s
systems.
CEO
George
Kurtz
roundly
criticized
Microsoft
in

an
interview
with
CNBC
last
year.

—
Rohan
Goswami

Travelers
stuck
this
morning
at
JFK
Airport
in
New
York
met
the
delays
with
resignation,
weariness
and
a
need
to
hit
the
bar.

Colby
Black,
45,
took
the
delays
in
stride,
even
though
he
wasn’t
sure
when
his
rescheduled
flight
to
Los
Angeles
would
take
off.
It
was
originally
set
to
depart
at
6
a.m. 

“I’m
just
tired.
I
want
to
sleep,”
said
Black,
who
woke
up
at
3
a.m.
“But
otherwise,
yeah,
it
happens.”

One
mother
said
she
hadn’t
slept
the
night
before,
just
so
she
and
her
infant
son
could
get
to
JFK
on
time.

“I’m
still
up,
running
on
no
sleep,”
she
said
as
she
was
seated
on
a
barstool
beside
a
heavy
pour
of
chilled
white
wine.
She
wasn’t
originally
planning
to
order
a
preflight
drink.

“Hell
no.
I
got
to
the
airport
at
4
o’clock
this
morning,”
she
said.


—
Kevin
Breuninger

The
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
said
it
isn’t
impacted
by
the
outage
but
is
“monitoring
for
market-related
impacts.”

CrowdStrike
shares
are
down
around
9%
in
midday
trading,
significantly
paring
back
earlier
losses.
It
traded
down
as
much
as
20%
in
pre-market
trading.
Microsoft
shares
are
flat
for
the
day.

Shares
in
United
Airlines
and
American
Airlines,
both
of
which
issued
ground
stop
orders
earlier
today,
have
recovered
earlier
losses
as
well.

–
Rohan
Goswami

CrowdStrike‘s

major
IT
outage,
which
has
affected
businesses
globally,
is
leading
the
stock
to
its
worst
weekly
performance
since
November
2022.

Shares
were
9%
lower
Friday,
pulling
the
stock
down
by
nearly
16%
week
to
date.

CrowdStrike
shares
are
still
higher
by
22.5%
in
2024.

—
Hakyung
Kim

Drugmaker


Amgen,
a


CrowdStrike
customer,
said
Friday
it
is
assessing
the
impact
of
the
global
outage
and
working
to
recover
affected
systems
“as
quickly
as
possible.” 

Amgen
did
not
disclose
what
kind
of
systems
were
impacted.

In
a
statement
on
its

website,
the
California-based
company
urged
employees
with
impacted
devices
to
only
follow
its
guidance. —

Annika
Kim
Constantino

The
health-care
software
vendor
Epic
Systems,
which
houses
more
than
305
million
patient
medical
records,
said
the
outage
has
caused
technical
issues
that
are
preventing
some
health-care
organizations
from
using
its
systems. 

An
Epic
spokesperson
said
the
disruption
is
not
affecting
the
company’s
services
directly,
but
it
has
received
reports
that
the
laptop
and
desktop
workstations
that
some
groups
use
to
access
Epic
are
down.
Additionally,
some
groups
have
reported
problems
with
their
data
center
software,
which
means
they
are
unable
to
access
patient
records
through
Epic.

“Organizations
that
have
been
affected
are
following
pre-established
downtime
protocols
to
continue
delivering
patient
care,”
an
Epic
spokesperson
told
CNBC
in
a
statement.
“Epic
staff
are
working
with
customer
IT
teams
to
restore
access
as
fixes
or
mitigation
approaches
are
available
from
CrowdStrike.”

Epic
said
its
platform
for
cloud-based
applications
called
Nebula
was
impacted
by
the
outage. Features
like
its
telehealth
offering
were
temporarily
unavailable,
but
Epic
said
access
has
been
restored.
Epic
is
continuing
to
monitor
Nebula,
the
company
added. 

—
Ashley
Capoot

United
Airlines’
ground
stop
has
been
lifted
for
all
airports,
according
to
an
Air
Traffic
Control
System
Command
Center
advisory.

Earlier
Friday,
the
airline
had
resumed
some
flights
but
told
CNBC
it
expected
“schedule
disruptions
to
continue
throughout
Friday.”

—

Ece
Yildirim

England’s
National
Health
Service
on
Friday
said
the
global
outage
has
impacted
its
system
for
booking
doctors’
appointments
and
managing
patient
records,
which
is
disrupting
the
majority
of
general
practitioner
practices.

That
appointment
and
records
system,
known
as

EMIS,
is
used
by
nearly
60%
of
England’s
general
practitioner
practices,
which
provide
medical
services
to
patients
of
all
ages.

NHS,
a
publicly
funded
healthcare
system,
is
also
experiencing
issues
with
some
administrative
systems
in
hospitals,
a
spokesperson
said
in
a

statement.
Staff
is
working
manually
from
paper
as
a
result,
but
“care
is
continuing
as
normal”
in
the
majority
of
hospitals,
they
added.

“The
NHS
has
long
standing
measures
in
place
to
manage
the
disruption,
including
using
paper
patient
records
and
handwritten
prescriptions,
and
the
usual
phone
systems
to
contact
your”
general
practitioner,
the
spokesperson
said.

Emergency
services
are
currently
not
affected,
according
to
the
spokesperson.

–
Annika
Kim
Constantino

Secretary
of
Transportation
Pete
Buttigieg
said
Friday
on
CNBC’s
“Squawk
on
the
Street”
that
he
expects
the
transportation
delays
to
be
smoothed
out
and
“resembling
normal”
by
Saturday.

“The
issue
has
been
identified.
It’s
really
a
matter
of
the
kind
of
ripple
or
cascade
effects
as
they
get
everything
in
their
networks
back
to
normal,”
Buttigieg
said.
“These
flights,
they
run
so
tightly,
so
back-to-back
that
even
after
a
root
cause
is
addressed,
you
can
still
be
feeling
those
impacts
throughout
the
day.”

Buttigieg
added
that
there
is
no
indication
on
any
impact
to
the
Department
of
Transportation’s
own
systems
including
air
control,
but
that
he
is
expecting
more
issues
on
the
airlines’
side.

“We’re
tracking
all
of
the
various
impacts
hitting
different
forms
of
transportation.
The
one
that
I
think
most
people
are
likely
to
experience
directly
is
those
airline
cancellations
and
delays
if
you’re
planning
to
fly
today,”
Buttigieg
said.

Nearly
28,000
flights
had
been
delayed
globally
as
of
about
11
a.m.
ET
Friday,
with
roughly
4,700
of
those
delays
within,
into
or
out
of
the
United
States,
according
to

FlightAware
data.
More
than
2,950
flights
have
been
cancelled,
with
almost
1,800
of
them
U.S.
flights.

—
Ece
Yildirim

CrowdStrike
CEO
George
Kurtz
wrote
in
a

post
on
X
that
Friday’s
incident
was
not
related
to
cybersecurity
and
that
the
issue
—
related
to
a
Falcon
content
update
for
Windows
Hosts
—
was
identified
earlier,
with
a
solution
deployed.
He
added
that
customers
“remain
fully
protected.”

“We
understand
the
gravity
of
the
situation
and
are
deeply
sorry
for
the
inconvenience
and
disruption,”
Kurtz
wrote.
“We
are
working
with
all
impacted
customers
to
ensure
that
systems
are
back
up
and
they
can
deliver
the
services
their
customers
are
counting
on.”

—
Hayden
Field

The
Federal
Reserve
said
its
systems
are
working
amid
the
global
tech
outage.

“Critical
Federal
Reserve
Systems
are
operating
normally. We
are
monitoring
the
situation
and
working
closely
with
industry
and
other
government
agencies
to
assess
the
situation,”
the
central
bank
said
in
a
statement
to
CNBC.

—
Leslie
Picker

Charles
Schwab,
which
operates
trading
services
including
Think
or
Swim,
said
in
a
Friday

X
post
that
“certain
online
functionality
may
be
intermittently
slow
or
unavailable.”

“Please
do
not
place
trades
twice,
as
duplicate
trades
may
be
created,”
Charles
Schwab
said
in
a
message
sent
to
account
holders
through
the
Charles
Schwab
app.
“We’re
actively
working
with
the
vendor
to
resolve
the
issue.
Phone
services
may
be
disrupted
and
hold
times
may
be
longer
than
usual.”

Vanguard
and
Fidelity
were
not
impacted
by
outages.

“After
the
widespread
third-party
outage,
Vanguard’s
portfolio
management
trading
functions
across
all
regions
are
operating
as
normal
and
there
is
no
current impact
to
our
products
or
pricing,”
a
Vanguard
spokesperson
said,
noting
they
will
continue
to
“monitor
the
situation.”

Fidelity
told
CNBC
they
are
aware
of
the
issues
and
the
company
did
not
appear
to
be
impacted
as
of
mid-day
Friday.

—
Jordan
Novet
and
Kate
Dore

Railroad


Union
Pacific
is
seeing
“varying
levels
of
impact”
across
its
network,
the
company
told
CNBC
in
a
statement,
with
back-up
protocols
enabling
communication
between
teams
and
dispatchers.

“We
are
doing
everything
possible
to
keep
freight
moving,
but
there
have
been
some
processing
delays
in
customer
shipments
as
we
address
targeted
areas
impacted
on
our
network,”
Union
Pacific
said.

Other
major
railroad
companies


Norfolk
Southern,
BNSF
and


CSX
told
CNBC
they
were
unaffected.
A
BNSF
representative
told
CNBC
that
it
will
continue
to
monitor
the
situation
for
potential
impacts.

—
Ece
Yildirim
and
Lori
Ann
LaRocco

FedEx
said
it’s
experiencing
“substantial
disruptions”
due
to
the
global
tech
outage.


UPS
is
also
reporting
an
impact,
according
to
statements
from
the
companies.

FedEx
said
that
there
could
be
delays
for
package
deliveries
that
were
expected
to
arrive
Friday,
but
the
shipping
company
is
attempting
to
mitigate
impacts.
The
company
has
activated
contingency
plans
to
address
the
disruption
throughout
its
networks,
according
to
the
statement.

UPS
also
said
there
may
be
service
delays,
as
it
works
to
resolve
all
issues.
The
software
outage
is
impacting
some
UPS
computer
systems
in
the
U.S.
and
Europe,
but
the
company’s
airline
and
driver
delivery
systems
are
still
operating
effectively,
according
to
the
statement.

DHL,
for
its
part,
said
in
a
statement
the
outage
currently
had
“only
very
limited
and
local
impact.”
DHL
also
said
that
some
suppliers
and
business
partners
are
affected,
and
that
it’s
monitoring
the
situation.

—
Justine
Fisher

Amazon’s
cloud
computing
service
alerted
its
customers
to
some
“connectivity
issues
and
reboots”
that
may
be
experienced
as
a
result
of
the
CrowdStrike
outage.

AWS
services
“continue
to
operate
normally,”
but
some
“Windows
Instances,
Windows
Workspaces
and
Appstream
Applications”
that
use
CrowdStrike
encountered
issues
early
Friday
morning,
according
to

a
notice
on
AWS’
service
dashboard.

The
company
provided
users
with
a
number
of
recovery
options
to
bring
their
applications
back
online,
including
to
“delete
the
CrowdStrike
Falcon
agent
file
on
the
affected”
instance,
or
server.

—
Annie
Palmer

President
Biden
has
been
briefed
on
the
global
outage,
and
the
administration
is
in
touch
with
both
CrowdStrike
and
impacted
entities,
according
to
a
White
House
official.

“His
team
is
engaged
across
the
interagency
to
get
sector
by
sector
updates
throughout
the
day
and
is
standing
by
to
provide
assistance
as
needed,”
the
official
said.

—
Hayden
Field

The
Department
of
Homeland
Security
says
it’s
working
with
CrowdStrike,
Microsoft
and
government
agencies
to
evaluate
the
outage. 

“The
Department,
and
the
Cybersecurity
and
Infrastructure
Security
Agency
(@CISAgov)
are
working
with
CrowdStrike,
Microsoft
and
our
federal,
state,
local
and
critical
infrastructure
partners
to
fully
assess
and
address
system
outages,”
the
department
said
in
a

post
on
X.

—
Sean
Conlon

The
Mount
Sinai
Health
System
in
New
York
City
said
Friday
that
it
has
“identified
and
isolated”
systems
that
have
been
affected
by
the
disruption.
The
health
system
is
made
up
of
eight
hospital
campuses
and
the Icahn
School
of
Medicine
at
Mount
Sinai.
The
organization’s
technology
team
is
actively
working
to
restore
impacted
systems,
it
said.

“Patient
safety
remains
our
top
priority
and
we
will
provide
updates
as
the
situation
evolves,”
Mount
Sinai
said
in
a
statement
to
CNBC.
“We
are
thankful
to
our
staff
who
are
working
to
ensure
care
continues
with
minimal
interruption.”

The University
of
Miami
Health
System,
which
operates
several
hospitals
in
South
Florida,
on
Friday
said
it
is
experiencing
“connectivity
issues
across
various
applications,”
including
its
electronic
medical
record
system.
The
global
outage
did
not
compromise
its
data
security
and
confidentiality,
the
health
system
said
in
a
Facebook

post. 

All University
of
Miami
hospitals
and
clinics
will
remain
open,
but
patients
should
expect
delays
until
systems
are
fully
restored,
according
to
the
post.
Impacted
facilities
are
using
paper
orders
to
distribute
information.

The
University
of
Miami’s
information
technology
team
“is
actively
working
to
resolve
the
disruption
and
bring
all
systems
back
online,”
the
post
added. 

UVA
Health,
a
health
system
associated
with
the
University
of
Virginia
in
Charlottesville,
said
in
a
statement
Friday
that
it
is
operating
on
a
“modified
schedule”
due
to
the
global
outage.
Most
ambulatory
clinics
will
be
closed.

Other
clinics
are
also
closed
as
of
Friday
morning
but
may
reopen,
according
to
the
UVA

website.

UVA
Health
operates
an
academic
medical
center,
three
community
hospitals,
a
specialty
rehabilitation
hospital
and
primary
and
specialty
care
clinics
throughout
Virginia.

Penn
Medicine
in
Pennsylvania
said
it
may
have
to
cancel
and
reschedule
appointments
in
some
locations
because
of
the
outage,
according
to
an
alert
on
its
website.
The
health
system
said
its
hospitals
are
staffed
and
continuing
to
provide
care
to
patients.

“We
are
making
every
effort
to
contact
patients
whose
appointments
need
to
be
canceled,”
Penn
Medicine
said.

The
Cleveland
Clinic
in
Ohio
told
CNBC
that
patient
care
is
not
affected
by
the
outage,
but
some
of
its
tech
has
been
impacted.
The
health
system
said
it
is
continuing
to
provide
care
at
all
locations.

CommonSpirit
Health,
which
provides
care
across
more
than
2,200
sites
in
24
states,
said
some
of
its
facilities
have
been
impacted
by
the
disruption.
The
health
system
said
patients
will
be
contacted
directly
if
their
appointments
are
affected.

“We
continue
to
provide
safe,
high-quality
care
to
our
patients
and
thank
everyone
for
their
patience
as
our
teams
take
immediate
action
to
restore
any
impacted
systems,”
CommonSpirit
told
CNBC
in
an
interview.

–
Annika
Kim
Constantino,
Ashley
Capoot

Crowdstrike
CEO
George
Kurtz
said
that
the
company
was
working
aggressively
with
every
customer
to
fix
outages,
but
said
that
because
of
idiosyncrasies
with
each
corporate
network,
the
repair
speed
would
vary.

“We’re
working
individually
with
each
and
every
customer
to
make
sure
we
can
get
them
up
and
running,”
Kurtz
said
on
CNBC’s “Squawk
on
the
Street.”

Kurtz
sidestepped
a
question
about
the
legal
risk
to
the
company
should
customers
opt
to
sue.
Kurtz
noted
that
he
has
been
in
cybersecurity
“for
a
long
time”
and
that
CrowdStrike
has
a
strong
reputation
and
level
of
trust
with
customers.

—
Rohan
Goswami

New
York
Stock
Exchange
and
Nasdaq
officials
said
the

exchanges
are
up
and
running
Friday.

“NYSE
markets
are
fully
operational
and
we
expect
a
normal
open
this
morning,”
a
spokesperson
for
the
exchange
said
Friday.

The
Nasdaq
said
its
European
markets
and
US
pre-market
are
operating
normally.
“We
expect
our
US
markets
to
open
normally,”
the
firm
said.

—
Jeff
Cox

Passengers
at
New
York’s
John
F.
Kennedy
International
Airport
faced
flight
delays
as
part
of
the
major
worldwide
IT
outage.

Several
airlines
had
requested
assistance
early
Friday
with
ground
stops
for
their
fleets
until
issues
were
resolved,
the
Federal
Aviation
Administration
said.

American
Airlines,


Delta
Air
Lines
and


United
Airlines
said
they
were
resuming
some
flights.
But
they
warned
of
delays,
and
both
Delta
and
United
issued
waivers
to
allow
customers
to
change
their
travel
plans.

Read
the
full
story
here.

—
Kevin
Breuninger
and
Michele
Luhn

Two
South
African
lenders
said
they
have
wholly
resumed
services
that
were
temporarily
affected
by
the
ongoing
global
cyber
outage.

“Phew!
That
was
rough,
but
all
of
our
services
are
now
back
up
and
running,”
retail
bank
Capitec
said
in
a

social
media
update,
after
alerting
customers
it
was
experiencing
“nationwide
service
disruptions”

earlier
in
the
day
because
of
“an
unexpected
issue
with
an
international
service
provider.”

Its
card
payments
and
ATM
were
not
impacted
at
the
time.

Absa
Group
also

said
that
“the
technical
matter
relating
to
the
global
outage
has
been
resolved”
with
respect
to
its
own
services,
after
flagging
difficulties
a
few
hours
prior.

“Absa’s
digital
banking
channels,
point-of-sale
services
and
ATMs
are
all
functional
and
available
for
you
to
continue
banking,”

it
noted
on
social
media
platform
X.

—

Ruxandra
Iordache

Mass
General
Brigham
is
canceling
all
previously
scheduled
non-urgent
surgeries,
procedures
and
medical
visits
on
Friday
“due
to
the
severity”
of
the
global
IT
outage,
the
integrated
healthcare
system
said
in
a

post
on
X.

It
added
that
its
clinics
and
emergency
departments
are
still
open
for
urgent
health
concerns
and
patients
already
receiving
care.
The
system
has
“dedicated
every
available
resource
to
resolve
this
issue
as
quickly
as
possible,
and
we
apologize
for
the
inconvenience
this
has
caused
our
patients.” 

Mass
General
Brigham
operates
two
of
the
U.S.’s
top-ranked
hospitals,
Massachusetts
General
Hospital
and
Brigham
and
Women’s
Hospital
in
Boston,
along
with
several
other
clinics
and
labs.

—
Annika
Kim
Constantino

The
MTA
said
that
train
and
bus
service
was
unaffected
by
the
outage,
but
that
some
customer-facing
systems
were
down
and
that
passengers
should
follow
instructions
from
crew
and
in
the
station.

–
Rohan
Goswami

CrowdStrike
CEO
George
Kurtz
apologised
Friday
for
the
systems
update
that
caused
a
global
IT
outage,
telling
NBC
“we’re
deeply
sorry.”

Businesses
are
still
reeling,
with
many
flights
grounded
and
payments
systems
downed
after
the
cybersecurity
giant’s
antivirus
software
update
went
awry.

“The
system
was
sent
an
update,
and
that
update
had
a
software
bug
in
it
and
caused
an
issue
with
the
Microsoft
operating
system,”
he
told
NBC’s
“Today”.

The
CEO
reiterated
that
it
was
not
a
security
incident
or
cyberattack,
and
that
the
company
is
working
with
customers
to
get
them
back
online.

He
said
the
update
was
normal
and
part
of
the
firm’s
routine
process
to
prevent
security
risks.
However,
he
noted
that
a
thorough
investigation
would
need
to
be
carried
out
into
what
went
wrong.

“We
have
to
go
back
and
see
what
happened
here.
But
if
there’s
a
negative
interaction
with
the
way
some
of
these
operating
systems
work
—
in
this
particular
case,
it
was,
it
was
only
a
Microsoft
operating
system
that
was
impacted
—
you’ll
see
a
reaction
like
this,”
he
said.

–
Karen
Gilchrest

Britain’s
Royal
Surrey
Hospital
in
Guildford
has

declared
a
“critical
incident”
due
to
external
IT
issues
that
are
affecting
its
services,
as
well
as
Varian
—
the
IT
system
that
it
deploys
for
radiotherapy
treatments.

A
critical
incident
can
be
declared
when
hospitals
and
staff
face
extraordinary
pressures.

The
institution
said
that
it
is
now
able
to
deliver
radiotherapy
services,
but
it
has
had
to
reschedule
appointments
due
to
take
place
this
morning.
The
disruptions
may
affect
appointments
into
next
week,
Royal
Surrey
noted.

—

Ruxandra
Iordache

Several
major
U.K.
companies
were
also
impacted
by
Friday’s
IT
outage,
with
food
retailer
Waitrose
temporarily
halting
contactless
payments.

The
British
grocer
said
in
a
statement
that
all
payment
methods
had
resumed
following
a
brief
suspension,
and
that
its
John
Lewis
stores
had
not
been
impacted.

Other
stores
such
as
the
Co-op
appeared
to
resort
to
cash-only
payments
as
the
outage
impacted
self-checkout
and
cashier
payment
systems,
according
to
posts
shared
on
social
media
platform
X.

Photos
showed
supermarket
shelves
with
“cash-only”
signs,
while
another
post
suggested
bakery
chain
Gail’s
was
not
taking
card
payments.
Gail’s
did
not
immediately
respond
to
CNBC’s
request
for
comment.

–
Karen
Gilchrest

Troy
Hunt,
the
respected
cybersecurity
researcher
behind
the
popular
password-breach
monitoring
service
HaveIBeenPwned,
labeled
the
ongoing
global
tech
disruption
as
“the
largest
IT
outage
in
history.”

The
CrowdStrike
outage
has
caused
cascading
failures
across
multiple
industries,
with
myriad
airlines
issuing
ground
stops,
broadcast
networks
going
off-air
and
critical
services
rushing
to
ameliorate
the
damage.

–
Rohan
Goswami

The
ongoing
global
IT
outage
might
not
have
an
“incredibly
straightforward”
fix,
according
to
Tom
Lysemose
Hansen,
Chief
Technology
Officer
at
Norwegian
cybersecurity
company
Promon.

“Crowdstrike’s
affected
customers
will
have
to
effectively
break
into
their
own
systems
to
get
everything
back
online
by
logging
into
the
admin
console
and
booting
their
systems
in
safe
mode,”
he
said
in
emailed
comments.

He
added
that
CrowdStrike
underpins
the
everyday
operations
of
many
organizations,
“being
present
in
anything
from
point
of
sale
to
ATMs
as
well
as
being
used
on
Microsoft
Windows
systems.”

CrowdStrike
earlier
on
Friday
said
it
was
applying
a
fix
to
an
identified
and
isolated
defect
in
a
single-content
update
for
Windows
hosts.
The
company
did
not
immediately
disclose
what
this
measure
would
entail.

—

Ruxandra
Iordache

The
global
IT
outage
is
having
a
“profound
impact,”
and
nothing
similar
has
ever
been
seen
before,
Satnam
Narang,
senior
staff
researcher
at
cybersecurity
firm
Tenable,
told
CNBC
on
Friday.

“It’s
very
far
reaching
and
we’re
still
just
in
the
beginnings
of
this
right
now,”
he
said.
Attempts
to
resolve
the
issue
would
take
time,
according
to
Narang.

“The
challenge
here
is
that
security
software
—
because
it’s
doing
its
job
to
protect
organizations
—
it
has
to
have
more
privileged
access
to
these
machines.
So
…
while
people
may
be
seeing
these
as
Windows
failures,
they’re
looking
at
it
and
seeing
a
little
blue
screen
pop
up,
it’s
not
actually
a
Windows
issue,
it’s
related
to
a
faulty
or
bad
update
from
those
security
software,”
he
explained.

“We’ve
never
seen
anything
like
this
before,
it’s
very
unprecedented.”

Speaking
to
CNBC
from
a
hospital,
Narang
said
health
care
was
one
of
the
key
areas
that
has
been
impacted.

“Systems
are
offline
which
means,
you
know,
patient
records
cant
be
accessed
and
medication
can’t
be
administered
properly
to
patients,”
he
said.

—
Sophie
Kiderlin

German
security
institutions
are
working
with
international
partners
to
resolve
an
IT
outage
that
has
affected
air
travel,
banking
and
several
companies,
German
Chancellor
Olaf
Scholz
said
Friday,
according
to
Reuters.

Scholz,
who
is
currently
visiting
Belgrade,
went
on
to
say
that
he
had
no
further
details
to
add
on
the
situation
at
this
time.

—

Ruxandra
Iordache

A
spokesperson
for
the
U.S.
National
Security
Council
told
CNBC
that
they
were
“aware
of
the
incident
and
are
looking
into
the
issue
and
impacts.”

CrowdStrike
has
a
comprehensive
government
contracting
practice.

—
Rohan
Goswami

Microsoft
users
around
the
world
are
being
hit
with
the
“blue
screen
of
death”
error
message.

The
U.S.
tech
giant
was
impacted
by
an
update
from
cybersecurity
firm CrowdStrike, which led
to
a
major
outage. Many
other
businesses
have
also
been
affected.

“We
have
been
made
aware
of
an
issue
impacting
Virtual
Machines
running
Windows
Client
and
Windows
Server,
running
the
CrowdStrike
Falcon
agent,
which
may
encounter
a
bug
check
(BSOD
[blue
screen
of
death)
and
get
stuck
in
a
restarting
state.
We
approximate
impact
started
around
19:00
UTC
on
the
18th
of
July,”
Microsoft
said
in
an
update
at
5:40
a.m.
ET.

“We
can
confirm
the
affected
update
has
been
pulled
by
CrowdStrike.
Customers
that
are
continuing
to
experience
issues
should
reach
out
to
CrowdStrike
for
additional
assistance,”
the
company
added.

Read
the
full
story
here.

—
Katrina
Bishop

Switzerland’s
National
Cyber
Security
Service
(NCSC)
said
it
has
received
“corresponding
reports
from
various
companies
and
critical
infrastructures
in
Switzerland”
amid
ongoing
global
system
failures
that
the
agency
blamed
on
CrowdStrike.

“It
is
a
faulty
update
or
misconfiguration
by
the
company
CrowdStrike
that
is
causing
these
system
failures,”
the
NCSC
said
in
an
emailed
statement.
“The
NCSC
is
in
contact
with
the
affected
companies.”

CrowdStrike
CEO
George
Kutz
earlier
in
the
day
said
that
the
company
had
deployed
a
fix
to
a
defect
found
in
an
update
for
Windows
hosts.

—

Ruxandra
Iordache

CrowdStrike
is
resolving
a
defect
found
in
a
single-content
update
for
Windows
hosts,
the
company’s
CEO
George
Kurtz

said
on
social
media
on
Friday.

He
added
that
Mac
and
Linux
hosts
are
not
impacted
by
the
disruption.

“This
is
not
a
security
incident
or
cyberattack.
The
issue
has
been
identified,
isolated
and
a
fix
has
been
deployed,”
he
said,
without
supplying
a
timeline
for
when
the
outage
is
likely
to
be
fully
resolved.

—

Ruxandra
Iordache

American
Airlines
said
it
has
resumed
operations
after
the
Microsoft
outage,
though
disruptions
have
continued
for
many
airline
passengers
on
Friday.

“Earlier
this
morning,
a
technical
issue
with
a
vendor
impacted
multiple
carriers,
including
American.
As
of
5
a.m.
ET,
we
have
been
able
to
safely
re-establish
our
operation,”
American
said
in
a
statement.
“We
apologize
to
our
customers
for
the
inconvenience.”

—

Leslie
Josephs

Two
German
hospitals
on
Friday
canceled
elective
procedures
and
closed
their
outpatient
units
due
to
the
global
IT
outage
impacting
businesses
around
the
world.

In
a

statement
that
was
translated
by
CNBC,
the
University
Clinic
Schleswig-Holstein
said
both
of
its
hospital
locations
—
Kiel
and
Lübeck
—
were
impacted
by
the
issues.

Care
for
the
patients
who
were
already
in
the
hospitals,
as
well
as
emergency
care,
have
been
secured,
the
statement
said.

—
Sophie
Kiderlin

Departures
of
major
U.S.
airlines
were
halted
on
Friday
as
the
carriers
grappled
with
the
Microsoft
outage.

The
Federal
Aviation
Administration
had
a
ground
stop
in
place
for


American,


Delta
and


United
as
of
Friday
morning.

“The
FAA
is
closely
monitoring
a
technical
issue
impacting
IT
systems
at
U.S.
airlines,”
the
Federal
Aviation
Administration
said
in
a
statement.
“Several
airlines
have
requested
FAA
assistance
with
ground
stops
for
their
fleets
until
the
issue
is
resolved.”
The
agency
said
to
monitor

fly.faa.gov for
updates.

Images
posted
on
social
media
showed
blue
screens
in
airports
as
travelers
complained
that
they
were
unable
to
retrieve
bags
or
rebook
flights,
with
some
of
them
facing
disruptions
overnight,
local
time,
when
staffing
was
thin.

“We’re
aware
of
a
technology
issue
with
a
vendor
that
is
impacting
multiple
carriers.
American
is
working
with
the
vendor
to
resolve
the
issue
as
quickly
as
possible,”
American
said
on
social
media
platform
X.

—Leslie
Josephs

Indian
IT
Minister
Ashwini
Vaishnaw
said
his
department
was
“in
touch
with
Microsoft
and
its
associates
regarding
the
global
outage.”

“The
reason
for
this
outage
has
been
identified
and
updates
have
been
released
to
resolve
the
issue,”
Vaishnaw
said
on
social
media
platform
X.

The
National
Informatics
Centre,
a
partner
of
the
Indian
government,
is
not
affected,
he
added.

—
Jenni
Reid

Britain’s
National
Health
Service
said
it
is
experiencing
disruptions
in
the
majority
of
general
practitioners
offices
as
a
result
of
the
ongoing
IT
outage
and
an
issue
with
an
appointment
and
patient
record
system.

“The
NHS
has
long
standing
measures
in
place
to
manage
the
disruption,
including
using
paper
patient
records
and
handwritten
prescriptions,
and
the
usual
phone
systems
to
contact
your
GP.”

It
added
that
there
is
currently
no
known
impact
on
emergency
services,
including
the
999
life-threatening
emergency
phone
service.

—

Ruxandra
Iordache

CBBC,
the
children’s
television
channel
of
U.K.
public
service
broadcaster
the
BBC,
was
still
offline
at
10:11
a.m.
in
London
(5:11
a.m.
ET).

The
screen
displayed
a
message
saying:
“Sorry!
Something’s
gone
wrong.”
It
was
the
only
BBC
channel
impacted,
according
to
updates
from
the
organization.

Sky
News
was
unable
to
broadcast
earlier
in
the
morning,
but
has
since
resumed
service.

—
Jenni
Reid

German
insurer
Allianz
said
its
services
have
been
impacted
by
the
IT
outage
that
has
been
enveloping
businesses
worldwide
and
is
working
to
minimize
the
effect
on
customers
and
operations.

“We
are
currently
experiencing
a
major
outage
that
is
impacting
employees
ability
to
log
into
their
computers,”
it
said
by
email.
“It
impacts
multiple
companies
besides
Allianz,
specifically
affecting
the
Windows
login
and
is
caused
by
an
incident
at
our
provider
CrowdStrike.”