Microsoft systems worldwide have been significantly affected by an IT services disruption, which has been linked to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and its recent update of its Falcon sensor.
CrowdStrike has acknowledged reports of crashes on Windows hosts related to the Falcon sensor, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. is a cybersecurity technology firm headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA. It offers cloud workload protection, endpoint security, threat intelligence, and services to respond to cyberattacks.
The impact of this disruption has been widespread, affecting airports in both the US and Australia.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requested Frontier Airlines, which was severely impacted by the outage, to pause its departures. Fortunately, the ground stop has been lifted.
Users have also taken to Downdetector.com, a website that tracks service outages, to report issues across various Microsoft 365 apps and services.
The outage has not only affected individual users but has also disrupted telecommunications, banks, supermarkets, and even police systems in New South Wales.
Australia’s national cyber security coordinator, Michelle McGuinness, has stated that current information indicates the outage is due to a “technical issue” and there is no reason to believe it is a cybersecurity incident.
On X (formerly Twitter), Microsoft announced earlier today that they are investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) said the global outage is not affecting Malaysia, but AirAsia is experiencing in-house system outage at the time of writing.
