Key points:

  • A software update failure from CrowdStrike affected 8.5 million Windows devices.
  • Consequences: flight cancellations, disruptions in television broadcasting, problems with access to banking and medical services.
  • Delta Air Lines canceled more than 600 flights, and bank tellers at some JPMorgan branches were not functioning.

On Saturday, July 20, Microsoft announced in its official blog a global outage that affected about 8.5 million Windows devices. The crash was caused by a software update released by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

Consequences of a crash

Software released by CrowdStrike, a leading cybersecurity solutions provider, caused a massive system outage. This led to serious consequences: flights were canceled, TV channels were disrupted, and clients of banks and medical institutions temporarily lost access to services.

CrowdStrike, together with Microsoft, has developed a solution that will speed up the recovery of the Microsoft Azure infrastructure.

Microsoft is also partnering with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform to share information about the impact the disruption is seeing across the industry.

The aviation industry has resumed operations

The aviation industry has gradually resumed operations after a massive disruption that led to widespread flight cancellations. Thousands of passengers have been stranded, facing hours-long delays due to glitches in airport and airline IT systems.

One of the hardest hit airlines was Delta Air Lines. As of 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT) on Saturday, the company had already canceled more than 600 flights and warned of the possibility of further cancellations.

Leading US carriers, including Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, have begun restoring some flights after a major IT system outage. An outage caused by problems with an IT service provider has forced a number of airlines to temporarily suspend flights.

Flight delays and cancellations are expected to continue throughout the day as airlines take time to fully restore their flight schedules and help passengers affected by the disruption.

As of 1:23 p.m. ET Friday, more than 2,200 U.S. flights were canceled and nearly 7,000 flights were delayed, according to FlightAware.

United Airlines said in a statement that the outage affected a number of critical systems, including aircraft weight calculation systems, passenger check-in systems and call center telephone systems.

JPMorgan says most ATMs are operating normally

JPMorgan Chase experienced technical problems that affected the bank’s ATMs. Despite the outage, most JPMorgan Chase ATMs are operating normally. The exact number of affected devices has not been disclosed. It is known that the bank has 16,000 ATMs throughout the United States.

In addition to JPMorgan Chase, other financial institutions were also affected by the global computer outage that occurred on Friday. As a result of hours-long system outages, bank tellers weren’t functioning, including at two JPMorgan branches in New York.