Businesses around the world are experiencing outages, including the Windows “Blue Screen of Death” error on their computers, which has become one of the most widespread outages in recent years. The problem is affecting a wide range of sectors, from banks, grocery chains, brokerages, media organizations, and airlines.
The issue appears to be affecting companies and their customers worldwide. The London Stock Exchange, Edinburgh Airport, and Ryanair have reported service outages. The airline blamed a “third-party IT issue.” Several companies and security experts have blamed security firm CrowdStrike for the outage.
Indian airlines IndiGo, Akasa and SpiceJet have reported that check-in systems at some airports are no longer working, warning passengers that flights may be delayed. Delhi Airport said some services were disrupted due to a global power outage. The South China Morning Post reported that Hong Kong Airport was also experiencing problems.
British news broadcaster Sky News had difficulty broadcasting live for most of this morning due to a power outage, tweeted the company’s chairman, David Rhodes. The New Zealand Herald reports that banking services in New Zealand have also been affected by the problem. According to Sky News, boarding scanners at UK airports are also facing disruption.
Many customers have reported that the issue has prevented them from restarting their computers. The outage comes shortly after Microsoft confirmed late Thursday that it was experiencing a service issue with Microsoft 365 Apps, which has affected several airlines, including Delta and United.
The cause of the problem is unclear, but some companies, including Australian energy company AGL, have blamed an update from security firm CrowdStrike.
The security company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An administrator on the CrowdStrike subreddit said the company was aware of “widespread reports” of blue screen errors on Windows devices across multiple versions of the software. The company is investigating the cause, the message said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates. Ram Eyer contributed to this report.
