A major technological issue at CrowdStrike paralyzed flights, disrupted public transport systems, and hindered banking and hospital operations worldwide on Friday. CrowdStrike, an American cybersecurity company used by more than half of Fortune 500 companies, attributed this incident to a faulty system update. Although it was not a security breach or a cyber incident, the repercussions were extensive and immediate. George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, apologized for the inconvenience, assuring that the problem had been identified, isolated, and corrected.
In the United States, hundreds of flights were canceled, affecting airlines such as American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines. Less than an hour after Microsoft resolved an outage related to its cloud services, several airlines were forced to ground their planes. Additionally, public transportation systems, notably in Washington D.C. and New York, reported impacts. Although trains and buses continued to run, some customer information systems were temporarily offline.
Globally, disruptions affected the London Stock Exchange, caused major train delays in the UK, and forced medical facilities in Europe and the United States to cancel certain services. Airports in Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, and India were also impacted. President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation, and federal agencies are assessing the impacts, with close cooperation between the Department of Homeland Security and other partners to understand the extent of the incident.
The healthcare sector was not spared, with hospitals canceling non-urgent services and limiting visits. Institutions such as Mass General Brigham in Boston and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital had to cancel appointments due to the outage. In Germany, two hospitals canceled scheduled operations, although they continued to provide patient care and emergency services.
This outage has revealed the fragility of the global internet infrastructure. Experts have pointed out that cybersecurity tools are supposed to ensure business continuity even in the event of data breaches, making this incident particularly disastrous. The impact was felt in diverse sectors such as media, banking, and telecommunications in Australia, with disruptions also reported in transportation in Spain and Germany.
The consequences of this outage were felt worldwide, with ripple effects across various sectors. Media outlets like Sky News in the UK were interrupted, airport display boards ceased functioning, and stores were unable to process payments. Despite the absence of evidence indicating a cyberattack, the incident highlights the critical vulnerabilities of our global technological infrastructure.
