Microsoft, which faced a global outage on Friday causing millions of computer systems to shut down, said that the root cause of the issue has been fixed, but the residual impact of cybersecurity outages is continuing to affect some Office 365 apps and services.

Microsoft’s Windows operating system was at the centre of this global outage after it was hit by a faulty update from a cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike. The cyber security firm CrowdStrike, which took responsibility for the Blue Screen of Death issue, said that a fix has been deployed for the bug that caused the global IT outage, affecting airlines, banks, telecom, and media across the world.

Globally, the Microsoft cloud outage disrupted airlines, banking, media, telecom, and trading services. According to Microsoft, the issue started on Thursday at 1900 GMT and affected users of the Azure cloud platform who were using CrowdStrike Falcon, a cybersecurity program. 

"We advise clients who can, to restore from a backup from earlier today," the US software behemoth stated on its website in a technical update.

Later, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz acknowledged that a fix had been rolled out for the problem.

What Caused The Microsoft Global Outage?

Microsoft claimed that CrowdStrike’s update was the root cause of this global outage. CrowdStrike acknowledged on Thursday that a Falcon Sensor problem was causing Windows system crashes with Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors. Even after rolling back the faulty update, millions of systems remained inactive for hours, causing worldwide chaos, including disrupting flights, banks, media, and telecom services. 

Here’s how the outage created worldwide chaos:

Disrupted Airline Services 

The global outage caused disruptions in air traffic, forcing airports to halt computerised operations, leading to cancelled and delayed flights. Thousands of flights were cancelled worldwide due to this outage. Many airports no longer accepted incoming flights until the issue was resolved. 

Halted Stock Exchange Functioning 

The worldwide Microsoft outage also affected investors. Although the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange said that they remained unaffected by the global outage, the London Stock Exchange reported that it was facing technical difficulties. The London Stock Exchange said that the RNS news service was experiencing a third-party global technical issue, preventing news from being published. However, there was no impact on securities trading or other services on the LSE.

Glitches In Microsoft Apps

The users were also unable to access various Microsoft apps and services, including Microsoft 365, Microsoft Team, and Microsoft Azure. According to Downdetector, an outage tracking website, some users also complained that they were facing glitches using Instagram, Amazon, Gmail, and several other applications.

Halted Media Outlets And Broadcasters Functions

Several TV networks and media houses were also affected due to the global outage, including Sky News in the UK, which lost service for about an hour before restoring it at nine in the morning local time.

The Associated Press also noted that they are “experiencing an intermittent service disruption that may impact your view of available content.

IT Sector Hit By The Global Outage

Windows 10 users were majorly hit by the massive outage worldwide. Several users on social media shared images of their blue screen stuck on the recovery page. Several multinational companies reported this problem across facilities, leading to early clock outs of employees.