Crowdstrike outage affects Microsoft systems worldwide, including flights, banks and more

A global tech outage disrupted major airlines, media companies, banks, and telecommunications firms worldwide Friday morning. Here's what we know.

Who owns Crowdstrike? Austin-based firm linked to mass tech outages

Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity firm based out of Austin, appears to have caused a global IT outage after launching an update. The firm is used by over half of Fortune 500 companies, according to a Crowdstrike promotional video earlier this year.

Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz took to X, formerly known as Twitter, and said the company is "actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts." Kurtz also clarified that the incident is "not a security incident or cyberattack."

In the post, Kurtz says the issue has been identified, a fix has been deployed, and that the company will "continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website." Additionally, Kurtz said the company is "fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of Crowdstrike customers."

Crowdstrike causing Microsoft outages, flight cancellations

Alert from the Texas Department of Public Safety

The state's Department of Public Safety has issued the following alert message:

"The global CrowdStrike incident is impacting the Texas Department of Public Safety. Multiple applications and services are impaired and unavailable. All scheduled driver license appointments for today, Friday, July 19th, 2024, have been canceled. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

Is Microsoft outage fixed?

Microsoft said in a statement on X that "the underlying cause has been fixed," however, residual impacts continue to affect "some Microsoft 365 apps and services. We're conducting additional mitigations to provide relief."

Microsoft Office 365 apps affected by outage

Microsoft said users might be unable to access various Office 365 apps and services due to a "configuration change in a portion of our Azure-backed workloads."

Microsoft's Azure outage causes flight cancellations, delays

The outage also affected Microsoft's cloud computing platform, Azure, and hampered airlines' operations.

Air passengers worldwide faced delays, cancellations, and problems checking in as airports and airlines were caught up in the outage. Several U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, issued ground stops for all their flights early on Friday due to communication problems, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

In Texas, American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines grounded flights less than an hour after Microsoft said it resolved a cloud-services-related outage that impacted several low-cost carriers.

People are also reading: Why are flights delayed in Texas right now? What passengers need to know

Multiple users reached out to Azure's support account on X, @AzureSupport, for answers. The account issued this statement in response to user complaints: "Hi, thank you for reaching out. We are aware that some of you are experiencing issues at the moment. Our team is looking into it and working on a resolution."

There were over 2,000 U.S. flights canceled and more than 21,000 delays as of 8 a.m. CDT, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. The Dallas Fort Worth International Airport reported over 100 flight delays and nearly as many cancellations.

Chaos descends on Texas airports

Those attempting to travel through Texas airports overnight and into Friday morning witnessed mayhem as several flights were delayed or cancelled. Some took their frustration to social media.

"I'm still stuck at DFW airport," one user wrote on X just after 6 a.m. Friday.

DFW Airport

George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston

Banks affected by Microsoft outage

The Microsoft outage also impacted banks around the world. Banks in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Britain experienced interruptions in services, according to CNN.

According to monitoring app Downdetector, the following banks have been affected by the Crowdstrike outages:

• Arvest Bank

• Bank of America

• Capital One

• Charles Schwab

• Chase

• TD Bank

• US Bank

• Wells Fargo

Social Security Administration offices closed

An alert by the Social Security Administration stated offices would be closed Friday, July 19 due to the global IT outage, Newsweek reports.

"Due to worldwide IT outage, local Social Security offices are closed to the public today. Longer wait times on our national 800 number are expected. Some online services are unavailable at this time. We appreciate your patience while we work to restore services as quickly as possible," the agency said in an alert.

911 outages

Several emergency services throughout the U.S., including 911 centers, are experiencing issues related to the Crowdstrike outage. Around 2 a.m. CDT Friday, BNO News reported impacts to centers in six states, not including Texas.

— USA TODAY reporters Gabe Hauari and Aaron A. Bedoya contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Crowdstrike, Microsoft outage causes global IT issues, flight delays