The Microsoft outage is considered the biggest IT outage in history as a software update resulted in the infamous “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD) causing disruptions to multiple services and sectors around the world.
An update to the Falcon Sensor software, designed by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to protect systems from cyberattacks, was found to have caused Microsoft’s Windows operating system to crash worldwide. The ensuing disruption led to a global IT outage for Microsoft’s Azure cloud service, disrupting several businesses around the world. The initial outage in the US was blamed on an Azure and 365 outage.
Why home computers didn’t break down
According to a report from The Conversation, CrowdStrike’s products are widely deployed in large businesses that need to protect themselves from cyberattacks, but are not widely used on home PCs.
This is because CrowdStrike’s products are customized for large organizations, and CrowdStrike’s tools monitor networks for signs of attack and provide the intelligence needed to respond to intrusions in a timely manner.
For home users, built-in antivirus and security products from companies like Norton and McAfee are much more popular.
How long will it take to actually fix this?
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has warned the public that cybercriminals are exploiting recent Microsoft outages to carry out phishing attacks and other malicious activity.
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“Threat actors continue to leverage widespread IT outages for phishing and other malicious activity, and CISA urges organizations to implement strong cybersecurity measures to protect users, assets and data from such activity,” it said in a statement.
Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella announced that the company is working actively to safely restore its global systems.
CISA advises people to be careful about clicking on phishing emails or suspicious links as they could lead to email compromise or other fraudulent activities.
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CrowdStrike has provided manual instructions for users on how to fix the issue on individual affected computers.
According to CNBC, CrowdStrike previously assured users that engineers were actively working to resolve the issue and that there was no need to open additional support tickets. Users experiencing issues were encouraged to contact their system administrators. Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz then shared an update on the situation on Twitter.
He wrote: “CrowdStrike is actively working with customers affected by the flaw found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not affected. This is not a security incident or cyber attack. The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to our support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and ongoing updates on our website. Additionally, we encourage organizations to ensure they are communicating with CrowdStrike customers.”
Which services were affected in India?
Flights: Check-in systems at airports across India, including Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore airports, were affected, causing chaos on July 19. Airlines IndiGo, Akasa and SpiceJet were notably affected by the IT outage. Several domestic flights were delayed as airlines used alternative methods such as Excel to manage check-in and booking services. They also conducted check-in manually to minimise disruptions to schedules. At Bangalore airport, 53 domestic flights were cancelled and over 55 flights were delayed.
Equity Market: Stock exchanges were not affected by the global outage linked to a Microsoft technical issue, but glitches were reported on some trading platforms including IIFL Securities, Angel One and 5Paisa. Traders at Edelweiss MF, Nuvama and Motilal Oswal also faced technical glitches.
Banks: According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), 10 banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) were affected by the outage. Most Indian banks’ critical systems are not on the cloud, and very few use CrowdStrike.
Business: With Microsoft Teams, Windows 365 and OneDrive all down due to technical glitches, many Windows users across the globe (especially those in IT services) were thankful that the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors had crippled their systems, allowing them to have an “early weekend”.
Several Indian asset management firms, including SBI MF, ICICI Prudential MF, Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, Axis MF and Zerodha MF, were not affected by the Microsoft outage.
Additionally, global impacts were felt on social media sites like Instagram and eBay. In the US, flights were cancelled by Delta, United and American Airlines, Sky News was disrupted from broadcasting live coverage, and some supermarkets had issues processing payments, preventing customers from completing purchases.
Could this happen again?
The outage has raised concerns among experts that many organizations are not adequately prepared to implement contingency plans in case a single point of failure, such as an IT system or the software within it, goes down.
Further digital disasters are on the horizon, with perhaps the biggest global IT challenge since the Millennium Bug – the “2038 Bug” – less than 14 years away, according to Reuters.
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The Millennium Bug, or “Y2K,” occurred because early computers saved expensive memory space by counting only the last two digits of the year, which meant that many systems couldn’t distinguish between the years 1900 and 2000, causing serious errors.
“I think it’s really important that organisations of all shapes and sizes look seriously at risk management and consider approaches that address the full range of exposures,” Nigel Fair, a cybersecurity professor at Australia’s Monash University, told Reuters.
CrowdStrike has provided manual instructions for users on how to fix the issue on individual affected computers.
According to CNBC, CrowdStrike previously assured users that engineers were actively working to resolve the issue and that there was no need to open additional support tickets. Users experiencing issues were encouraged to contact their system administrators. Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz then shared an update on the situation on Twitter.
He wrote: “CrowdStrike is actively working with customers affected by the flaw found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not affected. This is not a security incident or cyber attack. The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to our support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and ongoing updates on our website. Additionally, we encourage organizations to ensure they are communicating with CrowdStrike customers.”
Which services were affected in India?
Flights: Check-in systems at airports across India, including Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore airports, were affected, causing chaos on July 19. Airlines IndiGo, Akasa and SpiceJet were notably affected by the IT outage. Several domestic flights were delayed as airlines used alternative methods such as Excel to manage check-in and booking services. They also conducted manual check-ins to minimise schedule disruptions. At Bangalore airport, 53 domestic flights were cancelled and over 55 flights were delayed.
Equity Market: Stock exchanges were not affected by the global outage linked to a Microsoft technical issue, but glitches were reported on some trading platforms including IIFL Securities, Angel One and 5Paisa. Traders at Edelweiss MF, Nuvama and Motilal Oswal also faced technical glitches.
Banks: According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), 10 banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) were affected by the outage. Most Indian banks’ critical systems are not on the cloud, and very few use CrowdStrike.
Business: With Microsoft Teams, Windows 365 and OneDrive all down due to technical glitches, many Windows users across the globe (especially those in IT services) were thankful that the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors had crippled their systems, allowing them to have an “early weekend”.
Several Indian asset management firms, including SBI MF, ICICI Prudential MF, Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, Axis MF and Zerodha MF, were not affected by the Microsoft outage.
Additionally, global impacts were felt on social media sites like Instagram and eBay. In the US, flights were cancelled by Delta, United and American Airlines, Sky News was disrupted from broadcasting live coverage, and some supermarkets had issues processing payments, preventing customers from completing purchases.
Could this happen again?
The outage has raised concerns among experts that many organizations are not adequately prepared to implement contingency plans in case a single point of failure, such as an IT system or the software within it, goes down.
Further digital disasters are on the horizon, with perhaps the biggest global IT challenge since the Millennium Bug – the “2038 Bug” – less than 14 years away, according to Reuters.
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The Millennium Bug, or “Y2K,” occurred because early computers saved expensive memory space by counting only the last two digits of the year, which meant that many systems couldn’t distinguish between the years 1900 and 2000, causing serious errors.
“I think it’s really important that organisations of all shapes and sizes look seriously at risk management and consider approaches that address the full range of exposures,” Nigel Fair, a cybersecurity professor at Australia’s Monash University, told Reuters.
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First published: 21 July 2024 13:52 IST