Mass IT outage: here's a list of companies and operations affected (2024)

A mass IT outage has hit flights, banks, retailers, and media outlets around the world.

Microsoft also acknowledged the issue in an X update early Friday, writing, "Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions."

Here are some of the companies and operations affected.

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Airlines

Numerous airlines grounded flights early Friday morning, including the big three US carriers: United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines. In statements, they all cited technology issues.

Delta and American had both canceled their ground stops by 7 a.m. ET.

A United spokesperson told Business Insider that it was holding all aircraft at their departure airports while it works to restore systems. "Flights already airborne are continuing to their destinations," they added.

American has blamed the issues on CrowdStrike, saying they were because of a "technical issue with Crowdstrike that is impacting multiple carriers," according to BBC News.

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The budget airlines Frontier, Allegiant, and Spirit also issued ground stops which were later canceled.

Frontier's was issued on Thursday night. "Flight operations are currently being impacted by a major Microsoft technical outage," it said in a statement.

Spirit said it was unable to rebook affected customers because of the outage.

Disruption also extended to Europe. The continent's largest airline, Ryanair, advised passengers to arrive early as the outage caused "disruption across the network."

KLM also said it had to "largely suspend operations" as the outage made "flight handling impossible."

British Airways, Wizz Air, Turkish Airlines, Eurowings, Lufthansa, and Qantas were also among those who said they were affected.

911 lines

According to a Facebook post from Alaska State Troopers, emergency lines in the state are also affected.

The post said: "Due to a nationwide technology-related outage, many 911 and non-emergency call centers are not working correctly across the State of Alaska."

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"We appreciate your patience and will update you when we know more," the statement added.

Airports

The major UK airports Heathrow, Gatwick, and Luton have reported issues, with some warning of delays and disruption.

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An X post from Gatwick Express, a train service for the airport, said the company was unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, "leading to potential short-notice cancelations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks."

A spokesperson for Belfast International Airport confirmed to BI that whiteboards were being used to handwrite flight information before systems were later restored. Whiteboards were also used at Singapore Changi Airport.

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Hospitals and doctors' surgeries

Several hospitals and doctors' practices appear to have been affected by the outage.

In the UK, the NHS' EMIS system, which doctors use to book appointments, view patient notes, order prescriptions, and make referrals, appears to be having issues.

A spokesperson for the NHS told BI in a statement: "The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in the majority of GP practices."

They said that long-standing measures were in place to manage disruption and that there was no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as normal.

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"Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise and only contact their GP if it's urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111," they added.

Two German hospitals canceled elective operations scheduled for Friday, Reuters reported.

NYCT Subway

Commuters in New York City and DC may also face delays Friday morning.

In an X post, the NYCT subway said: "Train arrival information is unavailable for A/B/C/D/E/F/G/J/M/N/Q/R/Z/Rockaway Park Shuttle/Franklin Av Shuttle due to a worldwide technical outage. Train service is unaffected."

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The post said the tech outage also impacted Subway officials' ability to see train locations.

Broadcasters

Sky News also appears to have been hit by the outage. The UK news channel has been showing archive footage and briefly displaying an error message.

The news site appears to be up and running at the time of writing.

London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange's website was also experiencing issues.

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"RNS news service is currently experiencing a third-party global technical issue, preventing news from being published on www.londonstockexchange.com," the company said in a statement.

"Technical teams are working to restore the service. Other services across the group, including London Stock Exchange, continue to operate as normal," it continued.

Retailers and fast-food giants

Bloomberg reported that McDonald's Japan suspended about a third of its stores in the country on Friday. The issue was with the stores' cash registers, the report said.

The grocery-store chain Woolworths told BI that some stores had "been impacted as a result of the global IT issue." All but six stores were open for business, but some had fewer functioning checkouts.

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Delivery delays

FedEx and UPS are warning of delivery delays because of the outage.

In a statement on the company's website, FedEx said it was experiencing "substantial disruptions throughout our networks due to a global IT outage experienced by a third-party software vendor." The company said parcels due to be delivered on Friday might face delays.

A UPS spokesperson told BI that it continues to operate effectively but there may be some service delays due to third-party outage "impacting some UPS computer systems in the U.S. and Europe."

Some US state driver services are down

Drivers in some states are unable to access services because of the outage.

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Georgia's Department of Driver Services posted on X that "due to the global Microsoft/Crowdstrike outage, DDS services are unavailable at this time."

Tennessee's Department of Safety and Homeland Security said some Driver Services Centers may not be able to process transactions, according to a post on X.

North Carolina's Department of Motor Vehicles driver license and plate agencies are also impacted and unable to assist customers, according to a CNN report.

Hotels

Bloomberg reported that at the Ocean Park Marriott in Hong Kong, staff were using pen and paper to check guests in and said the outage was affecting their systems globally.

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Marriott International later told CNN in a statement that "certain hotel systems" have been affected.

"We are actively working with our vendors to resolve issues that have impacted certain hotel systems," the company said in a statement to the publication. "We apologize for any inconvenience that guests may experience."

Mass IT outage: here's a list of companies and operations affected (2024)

FAQs

What did the Global IT outage affect? ›

The outage appeared to affect almost every major business sector in one way or another. Airports and flights across the world were severely delayed or canceled altogether, as the computers on which these services rely were disrupted by the issue.

What did CrowdStrike outage affect? ›

The Microsoft outage led to substantial disruptions across numerous sectors. It resulted in flight delays and cancelations, and affected critical services in hospitals, banks, supermarkets, and millions of other businesses.

What business is affected by Microsoft outage? ›

The global outage due to a technical issue around Microsoft's applications and services has largely affected businesses and institutions in different countries. Flight operations, banks, retailers and IT firms were at the receiving end of this IT outage, that has left people in panic.

Who was affected by Microsoft's outage today? ›

Affected were Microsoft-powered systems critical to the online operations of banks, hospitals, police forces, major airlines, TV stations and government agencies. Flights and surgeries were canceled, courts and government offices shut down, and new hacking vulnerabilities introduced, including for federal agencies.

Is Southwest Airlines affected by CrowdStrike? ›

Some airlines, including Southwest and Alaska, do not use CrowdStrike, the provider of cybersecurity software whose faulty upgrade to Microsoft Windows triggered the outages. Those carriers saw relatively few cancellations.

What banks were affected by the Microsoft outage? ›

LIST: Banks affected by Crowdstrike, Microsoft outage
  • Arvest Bank.
  • Bank of America.
  • Capital One.
  • Charles Schwab.
  • Chase.
  • TD Bank.
  • US Bank.
  • Wells Fargo.
4 days ago

Has American Airlines been affected by the outage? ›

Tuesday marks day five of the tumultuous travel aftershock following a software issue with CrowdStrike caused by a faulty software update, which interrupted the check-in process and crew tracking for multiple major airlines including American Airlines, United and Delta, as well as tech disruptions at hospitals, banks ...

Is American Airlines affected by Microsoft outage? ›

A global Microsoft outage disrupted IT systems around the world on Friday, canceling over a thousand US flights and delaying hundreds more. As a result, major US airlines including American Airlines, United, and Delta requested global ground stops on all flights Friday morning, per the FAA.

What companies are affected by the AWS outage? ›

Reports suggest that millions of users were impacted, with many unable to access critical services and applications. Companies that rely heavily on AWS, such as Netflix and Adobe, experienced significant disruptions, as did thousands of smaller businesses that rely on the platform for their day-to-day operations.

What caused the global internet outage? ›

Related article What is CrowdStrike, the company linked to the global outage? The company said the outage was not caused by a security incident or a cyberattack, but rather a software defect. The issue was identified and isolated, and engineers deployed an update to fix the problem, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said.

What caused the CrowdStrike problem? ›

The root cause of the outage was a faulty sensor configuration update that specifically affected Windows systems. The channel file 291 update was never issued to macOS or Linux systems as the update deals with named pipe execution that only occurs on the Microsoft Windows OS.

Is IT CrowdStrike or Microsoft fault? ›

The recent Microsoft outage caused by a faulty CrowdStrike update notably impacted individuals and businesses worldwide. The issue stemmed from a logic error triggered by an update to the CrowdStrike Falcon sensor configuration file.

What are the effects of network outage? ›

Poor connectivity or an internet outage can have a direct impact on the ability for an individual to do their job productively and can lead to a lack of confidence in the company, resulting in employees leaving their roles.

What is impacted by CrowdStrike? ›

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 linked to the company CrowdStrike.

What was the Global IT issue? ›

A global technology outage caused by a faulty software update grounded flights, knocked media outlets offline, and disrupted hospitals, small businesses and government offices on Friday, highlighting the fragility of a digitized world dependent on just a handful of providers.

What is the worldwide IT outage? ›

An estimated 8.5 million Microsoft Windows PCs devices were affected worldwide by the update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, causing delays for airports, broadcasters, hospitals and businesses. Problems came to light quickly after the latest version of CrowdStrikes Falcon sensor software was rolled out on Friday.

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