Businesses worldwide have faced significant disruptions following a series of technical glitches in Microsoft’s systems, affecting crucial services relied upon by industries ranging from airlines to financial institutions.
Reports indicate that the disruptions have notably impacted operations in the United States and various Asian countries.
On social media platforms, numerous employees have shared frustrations over their inability to work due to Windows systems failing to start, with images of blue screens displaying error messages becoming widespread. Despite these widespread issues, Microsoft services in Nigeria have reportedly remained unaffected as of the latest reports.
Major corporations such as McDonald’s Corp., United Airlines Holdings Inc., and the London Stock Exchange Group have disclosed experiencing a variety of issues related to customer service and operations. For instance, KLM announced it was suspending most flights due to a global computer outage, mirroring similar reports from corporations across Japan, India, and the US.
According to Bloomberg, some of these disruptions have been attributed to issues with CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.’s cybersecurity software. Australia’s AGL Energy Ltd. also reported system problems due to a CrowdStrike outage.
In response to inquiries, a Microsoft spokesperson stated that the company is actively investigating the situation, while representatives from CrowdStrike were not available for immediate comment.
The disruptions initially surfaced in the US, affecting Microsoft services such as Azure and Microsoft 365. Denver-based Frontier Airlines halted flights for over two hours before resuming operations. Similarly, the LSE Group reported a global technical issue hindering news publication.
In Asia, users in Japan encountered glitches with Microsoft 365 services, prompting airports in cities like Mumbai, Narita, Singapore, and Hong Kong to resort to manual passenger check-ins.
The incidents follow closely after Microsoft had resolved an earlier outage affecting its Azure cloud services. Updates from the company indicate ongoing efforts to mitigate the impact across affected services.
The root cause of these widespread technical failures remains unclear.
