Massive technical glitch is causing global disruptions. Here’s what we know (video)

NEW YORK (AP) — Much of the world was confronted with online chaos Friday as a widespread technology failure affected businesses and services across sectors: flights were grounded, banks and hospital systems were forced offline, and media outlets were taken off the air.

CrowdStrike has said a fix is ​​on the way. However, chaos deepens hours after the problem was first discovered.

Here’s what you need to know.

Live updates: Follow AP’s latest coverage of the global outage.

How did Friday’s ‘blue screen’ outage occur?

Friday’s disruptions began when a defective update was released by CrowdStrike for one of its tools, “Falcon.” In a statement about the ongoing situation, the company said the defect was found “in a single content update for Windows hosts” — noting that Mac and Linux systems were not affected.

Long rows formed at airports in the US, Europe and Asia as airlines lost access to check-in and booking services during the summer peak, disrupting thousands of flights. Banks in South Africa and New Zealand reported outages that affected payments. Some news channels, particularly in Australia, were unable to broadcast for hours. And hospitals had problems with their appointment systems, leading to delays and sometimes cancellations for intensive care, while officials in some US states warned of 9/11 problems in their areas.

“It’s an ‘all eggs in one basket’ situation,” Craig Shue, professor and chair of the computer science department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, said in an email comment. “It allows us to make sure that our ‘basket’ is high quality: The software vendor is trying to identify threats and respond to them quickly. But if something goes wrong at the same time and the basket fails, we’re left with a lot of broken eggs.”

What is CrowdStrike?

CrowdStrike is an American cybersecurity company that provides software to businesses worldwide and across all industries. It bills itself as the world’s most advanced cloud-based security technology provider.

“We stop breaches,” the cybersecurity company says on its website.

According to its website, CrowdStrike was founded in 2011 and launched in early 2012. It went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange five years ago. Last month, the Austin, Texas-based company reported that revenue rose 33% in its most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year earlier — with net income of $42.8 million, up from $491,000 in the first quarter of last year. It reported 29,000 subscribers.

Is there a solution?

The disruptions on Friday continued hours after CrowdStrike first identified the issue. But both the company and Microsoft said they working to get systems back online.

In an emailed statement, CrowdStrike said it is “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts” – adding that a fix had been “deployed” for the identified issue.

CrowdStrike President and CEO George Kurtz later apologized. “We understand the seriousness of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption,” he wrote on social media platform X.

Microsoft spokesman Frank X. Shaw said the company is “actively supporting customers in their recovery.” Both CrowdStrike and Microsoft also appear to be engaging IT staff through official online channels, such as Reddit.

Gartner analyst Eric Grenier noted that those affected should make sure they talk to trusted organizations as they work to recover. “Attackers will definitely target organizations because of this,” he said.