What to Know
- Microsoft products worldwide went offline overnight Friday due after an issue with an update to cybersecurity program CrowdStrike.
- Flights were grounded, health systems’ technology went offline and Metro’s website went down, causing ripply effects for hours after a fix was deployed.
- The outage is not connected to a security incident or cyberattack, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said.
A widespread Microsoft outage linked to a cybersecurity software disrupted business-as-usual worldwide Friday morning. In the Washington, D.C., area, dozens of flights were delayed, Metro’s website went offline and News4 Today was stalled.
The outage is linked to a recent update from the company CrowdStrike, which said it deployed a fix for the issue. CEO George Kurtz said the outages were not from a security incident or cyberattack.
Crowdstrike’s Falcon platform is like a defense system for IT infrastructure. The cloud-based software will work to automatically stop malicious code or other issues immediately instead of simply notifying a company to address the issue. Here’s an explainer on how Crowdstrike works.
Systems are coming back online, but the overnight disruption is causing ripple effects.