Companies, airlines scramble to recover after global IT outage disrupts business worldwide

Companies are attempting to pick up the pieces one day after a global IT outage disrupted major industries across the world, including airports, businesses and broadcasters.

Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike said a sensor configuration update to its Falcon platform released Friday “triggered a logic error” that led to “a system crash and blue screen (BSOD) on impacted systems.” The issue was resolved shortly after, the company said.

But what followed was a massive information technology glitch for airlines, medical facilities, businesses and police forces around the globe, with Microsoft computers showing “Blue Screens of Death.”

On Saturday morning, David Weston, Microsoft’s VP of Enterprise and OS Security, said on the official Microsoft blog that 8.5 million Microsoft devices were affected by the outage, which accounts for less than one percent of all Windows machines.

“While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services,” Weston said.

Major U.S. airlines grounded flights, leading to global delays. As of Sunday morning, more than 980 flights flying to, from and within the U.S. were canceled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. That tally is an improvement from the more than 2,500 that were canceled on Saturday morning.

There were long lines of weary travelers at airports around the world, including in Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Bali. Some snapped photos of the dreaded blue screens that were still appearing at some airport TV screens on Saturday and posted them to social media. One passenger posted a photo of travelers sleeping on a concourse early Saturday at the airport in Atlanta.

In Alaska, troopers said 911 services were down across the state, but later said they were functioning normally. New Hampshire and Plano, Texas, were also among the states and communities that had reported problems with 911 due to the outage, but have since said they were functioning normally.

Medical facilities were also affected by the outage, including 51 hospitals under the Providence Southern California umbrella in Western states, according to the health care organization.

Several major U.S. hospitals were forced to cancel surgeries and doctor’s appointments. The daughter of a 73-year-old man who was scheduled for open-heart surgery Friday at Baptist Health hospital in Paducah, Kentucky, said the procedure to clear eight blockages and repair an aneurysm was canceled due to the global technology outage.

Courts in Massachusetts and New York also saw their operations disrupted by the outage Friday, according to The Associated Press.

The issue also affected banks, leaving some customers unable to access their money. People across Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere reported problems logging into their accounts at major retail banks. Meanwhile, the London Stock Exchange, the largest of its kind in Europe, said some of its services had been disrupted although trading had not been impeded.

Starbucks, which experienced issues with its mobile order-ahead and pay features, said they were back up and running Saturday morning.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., asked the acting chief information officer of the Defense Department for a briefing on the IT issue by July 26.

A Defense Department spokesperson said it was aware of the issues and that personnel were monitoring their networks for possible impacts.

“For operational security reasons, we do not comment on the status of our network operations, information systems or operations to assess cyber threats,” the statement read.