Microsoft outages caused by CrowdStrike software glitch paralyze airlines, other businesses. Here’s what to know.

Banks, airlines, television networks and health systems around the world that rely on Microsoft 365 apps were hit by widespread outages early Friday. Thousands of flights and train services were canceled globally, including more than 1,000 in the U.S., and there were disruptions to many other public and retail services. 

Here’s what we know about the outages:

What caused the global Microsoft outages?

The issue was caused by a technical problem that global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said it had identified in its software and was working to resolve. CrowdStrike provides antivirus software to Microsoft for its Windows devices.

“Earlier today, a CrowdStrike update was responsible for bringing down a number of IT systems globally. We are actively supporting customers to assist in their recovery,” Microsoft said in a statement to CBS News. 

When CBS News called CrowdStrike’s technical support line Friday, a pre-recorded message said the company was aware of reports of crashes on Microsoft systems related to its Falcon Sensor software.

In a statement shared Friday with CBS News and on social media, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said the issue had been identified and a solution was being implemented.

“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,” Kurtz said. “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

Speaking later Friday to CNBC, Kurtz apologized to all those affected by the issue and stressed that it was not caused by a cyberattack.

“There’s a single file that drives some additional logic on how we look for bad actors,” Kurt said. “This logic was pushed out and caused an issue only in the Microsoft environment, specific to this bug that we had.”

What has been affected by the Microsoft outages?

A Department of Homeland Security memo to staff obtained by CBS News said that “DHS systems are currently impacted by a global outage of the cybersecurity software CrowdStrike. This is impacting many businesses globally, as you may be seeing in the news. This was not a cyberattack.”  

Over 1,300 flights had been canceled within, into or out of the U.S. as of Friday morning, and more than 3,600 others were delayed, according to the the flight tracking service, FlightAware. Globally, more than 25,000 flights were delayed early Friday.

American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines resumed at least some flight departures later Friday morning after pausing operations earlier in the day due to the outages.

“We are resuming some flights but expect schedule disruptions to continue throughout Friday,” United Airlines said in a statement.

“The FAA continues to work closely with airlines as they work to resume normal operations. Ground stops and delays will be intermittent at various airports as the airlines work through residual technology issues,” the Federal Aviation Authority said in a statement.

In Europe, Lufthansa, KLM and SAS Airlines reported disruptions. Switzerland’s largest airport, in Zurich, reported planes had not been allowed to land, according to CBS News partner network BBC News. 

In India, at the country’s primary airport in Delhi, everything was being done manually. No electric check-in terminals were functioning and gate information was being updated by hand on a white board, the BBC reported.

Hospitals in Germany said they were canceling elective surgeries Friday and doctors in the U.K. said they were having issues accessing their online booking system. Pharmacists in the U.K. said there were disruptions with medicine deliveries and accessing prescriptions. 

The London Stock Exchange said it had experienced disruptions to its regulatory news service, but that trading had not been impacted. A spokesperson for the New York Stock Exchange said markets were fully operational and a normal opening was expected.

Delivery companies like FedEx also reported that some packages could be delayed due to the outages.

“FedEx has activated contingency plans to mitigate impacts from a global IT outage experienced by a third party software vendor. However, potential delays are possible for package deliveries with a commitment of July 19, 2024,” the company said in a statement.

When will the Microsoft outages be fixed?

Even with the fix being implemented by CrowdStrike, some of the problems caused will likely take time to solve, Chief Information Officer at identity security firm CyberArk, Omer Grossman, told Reuters. He said the reason is that the problem has to do with Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) products that run on individual client computers.

“It turns out that because the endpoints have crashed — the Blue Screen of Death — they cannot be updated remotely and the problem must be solved manually, endpoint by endpoint. This is expected to be a process that will take days,” Grossman said.

In his interview with CNBC, CrowdStrike’s Kurtz said many of the affected systems were already beginning to recover, and a fix could be as straight forward for some clients as rebooting their computers or servers.

He acknowledged, however, that “some systems may not fully recover, and we’re working individually with each and every customer to make sure we can get them up and running and operational.” 

Kurtz did not provide a timeframe, and it appeared that many companies and organizations around the world would have to rely on their own technology departments to get systems back up and running.