An extensive Microsoft shutdown disrupted air travel, banks, stock exchanges, and broadcasting companies on July 19, 2024. A significant IT shutdown on Friday affected systems worldwide, including in India, Australia, Germany, and other nations. Numerous outages in Microsoft cloud services impacted multiple countries. Flights were grounded, emergency services were affected, and the health sector experienced disruptions.

The shutdown also impacted flight operations, trading, and other services in India. A widespread Microsoft shutdown created chaos in computer systems globally, resulting in grounded flights and crippled banks, stock exchanges, payment systems, and emergency services.

The shutdown is believed to be caused by the failure of Crowdstrike Falcon, a cybersecurity platform that provides security solutions for Microsoft Windows. The disruptions persisted even after Microsoft announced that they were working to fix the issue.

Microsoft and CrowdStrike have dismissed claims of a cyber attack and stated that the shutdown occurred due to a “recent update received in the product.”

In India, the shutdown led to widespread disruptions in flight operations, payment systems, and trading, among other services. Flight delays were reported across airports, leading to long queues. The shutdown affected booking and check-in services for several airlines, including IndiGo, Akasa Airlines, and SpiceJet.

Drawing insights from the cyber shutdown, the central government stated that it is in discussions with Microsoft to address the problem. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will likely issue an advisory regarding the shutdown.

The global shutdown affected Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest hubs. A spokesperson said flights to and from Schiphol were affected. Berlin Airport suspended all flights due to a technical issue. The airport operator stated on social media that the error delayed check-ins.

Several major airlines, including American Airlines, Delta, and United, reportedly grounded all flights in the US. Authorities in Spain reported a “computer incident” at all its airports. Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, warned passengers of potential disruptions that would affect “all airlines operating across the Network.”

Passengers at Edinburgh Airport in Britain could not use automated boarding pass scanners, and security monitors displayed a message saying “server offline.” Turkish Airlines also experienced problems with ticketing, check-in, and reservation processes due to a global technical issue in information systems.

The shutdown disrupted the operations of stock exchanges in various countries. Services at the London Stock Exchange were affected. Several brokerage firms, including Nuvama, Edelweiss, and Motilal Oswal, also faced technical outages. Traders reported disruptions in their operations in India.

Payment systems were impacted globally, including in India. Just a week before the Olympic Games began, the Paris Olympics organising committee informed about the shutdown’s impact. The shutdown also affected news services globally. Britain’s Sky News, one of the country’s major television news channels, reported being unable to broadcast.

The news agency Associated Press also experienced service disruptions in news delivery. An update by India Today stated that the Associated Press is experiencing an intermittent service disruption that may impact your view of available content.

ABC News in Australia also could not broadcast news following the system failure. Australia was one of the first countries to report the shutdown, which affected banks, telecoms, media outlets, and airlines. Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator stated a large-scale technical outage affected several companies and services across Australia that afternoon.

In the United States, emergency 911 services were disrupted in many parts, and non-emergency call centres were also not working due to the shutdown. Health services were affected in many countries. A health booking system used by doctors in England has gone offline. News agency Reuters reported that two hospitals in the northern German cities of Luebeck and Kiel have cancelled elective operations scheduled for today.

As the global shutdown caused chaos worldwide, social media was filled with memes and humorous takes on the issue. CrowdStrike and Microsoft confirmed that they know the issue and are working to resolve it. Microsoft stated that multiple services are “continuing to see improvements in availability” as the company’s mitigation actions progress.

The spokesperson also mentioned that they are aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform. George Kurtz, CrowdStrike’s CEO, stated that the company is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.

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