One of the leading tech companies, Microsoft, recently experienced a glitch and halted work across various sectors, including companies, airlines, banks, television networks, and health systems. While Microsoft’s swift action and transparent communication were appreciated, this incident highlights the importance of having a robust contingency plan to handle such hiccups.
How The Glitch Started
On July 19, 2024, an unexpected IT outage caused chaos around the globe. Several services were halted as computers displayed a blue screen and became stuck in a restarting state due to a glitch in Microsoft services. The outage started in the U.S. and spread like wildfire worldwide in a few hours. The impact of the outage was so extensive that it is already considered one of the largest IT outages in history.
The Root Cause of The Glitch
Many initially suspected a hacker attack, but it was actually a software bug that caused the disruption. CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity provider for Microsoft, released a faulty update. The company explained that the issue stemmed from Falcon, a service that warns about hacker attacks and other threats by scanning computers. The update to the Falcon sensor contained a glitch, which brought down the Windows 365 operating system globally, impacting several sectors.
Global Impact
Around 8.5 million computers worldwide were affected by the Microsoft outage. Services such as Microsoft 365, Teams, and Outlook were reportedly compromised, causing significant disruption to the daily operations of businesses, airlines, the healthcare sector, and even government agencies. With more than 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies relying on Microsoft services, the estimated loss of productivity amounted to millions of dollars per hour.
Impact on Airlines
Airlines were also hit hard by the recent Microsoft outage, resulting in flight cancellations and delays that left thousands of passengers stranded at the airport. A flight tracking service, FlightAware, reported over 3,000 flights were canceled globally on Friday night, with more than 1000 cancellations in the U.S. alone and around 42,000 flights canceled worldwide.
Major airlines such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines were able to resume some flights, while other carriers continued to struggle. The crisis didn’t just affect passengers, rather, it affected the logistics challenges for airport operations, baggage handling and scheduling. Additionally, the financial losses for the airline were substantial, with millions of dollars lost due to the cancellations and delays.
Impact on Banks and T.V. Networks
The sudden outages also impacted Banks and T.V. networks, resulting in service disruptions. Some news channels were unable to broadcast their morning coverage, while others struggled to host live shows.
Major banks such as Bank of America, Visa, T.D. Bank, Wells Fargo, and others faced significant issues in banking services including email communication, document management, and transaction processing. This led to substantial financial losses and increased customer dissatisfaction.
Impact on Other Sectors
The outage severely impacted the corporate, hospitality, and stock market sectors, causing significant financial losses and disruption for customers and employees. Even 911 emergency lines were affected, as real-time tracking technology on their systems was not working. The London stock change and NHS UK servers also crashed, remaining non-functional for hours.
Reaction of People
Many people faced significant issues, leading to widespread frustration. Numerous travelers were stranded at airports, unable to take their flights, and had to cancel crucial appointments. Others struggled to access essential services such as banking, healthcare, and stock market transactions. Some even named the issues a BSOD or ‘Blue Screen of Death’. Additionally, numerous memes about the incident circulated on social media.
Microsoft Response
CrowdStrike and Microsoft quickly identified the problem and started working on a fix. Microsoft kept updating users through its social media platforms and also published a blog addressing the issue. They announced the fix had been deployed and directed customers to the support portal for the latest updates. Further, they assured users that the issue would not impact CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform systems and that installing Falcon would not cause any problems with the functionality of the operating system.
Temporary Workarounds
Until the issue was resolved, Microsoft suggested several temporary workarounds to help users. These included restarting the applications, rebooting the windows, and navigating to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory to delete a specific file before booting normally. On July 22, Microsoft launched a tool to help with automatic and manual recovery methods. This tool provided the user with step-by-step guidance to restore their system.
Recovery of Microsoft Outage
Recovery efforts began immediately after identifying the root cause. While some problems had been fixed, others would take time to resolve. The crash of endpoints caused a delay in solving the issues, as it could not be fixed remotely and needed manual intervention. The CEO of CrowdStrike said that while some computers started functioning normally after rebooting, others would take time to recover.
Next Step
This outage provided the company with significant lessons. Before releasing updates in the future, it is essential to test them in different environments to prevent similar issues. Organizations must have a robust backup system to deal with outages effectively. Additionally, adopting a multi-cloud strategy is essential to avoid dependency on a single-cloud service, enabling better management of such situations in the future.
Impacts on Microsoft’s Net Worth
All the chaos also impacted the tech giant’s net worth significantly. According to estimates, the company lost around $23 billion in market value within a few hours. The share price fell from $443.52 at the previous close to $440.37, resulting in a 0.71 percent decrease. However, market analysts believe this fall is temporary and expect a swift recovery for Microsoft.