Shreya Varanasi, Pune
Millions of Windows users worldwide are experiencing the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issue. Such an error causes the entire system to shut down or restart unexpectedly. Several businesses, airlines, emergency services, banks, trade, and even government organizations were immensely impacted by this cloud service outage. Tech giant Microsoft revealed in a statement that the error was caused by a recent CrowdStrike upgrade.
Cybersecurity platform CrowdStrike Falcon that provides security solutions for Microsoft Windows may have failed, resulting in the massive global outage. Around six hours after the disruption, Microsoft tweeted that multiple services are continuing to see improvements as their mitigation actions progress. The outage persisted for hours after Microsoft said that the problem had been solved.
Microsoft’s Service Health Status page reported that the outage started earlier today at 3:26 A.M. and is currently experiencing ‘service degradation’. However reports suggest that the company has restored some services like One Note, Intune, and SharePoint Online.
In India, the interruption caused significant delays in airline operations, banking systems, and trading, among other services. Flight delays were reported at various airports, causing huge lines. The outage interrupted booking and check-in services for a number of airlines, including major Indian airlines IndiGo, Air India, Akasa Airlines, and SpiceJet. Meanwhile, the central government acknowledged the cyber interruption and claimed that it is negotiating with Microsoft to resolve the issue.
Globally, major airlines have either warned passengers of the problems or grounded flights owing to communication issues. Meanwhile, the interruption slowed stock market operations in many countries. Services at the London Stock Exchange were disrupted. Several brokerage businesses, including Nuvama, Edelweiss, and Motilal Oswal, had technical troubles. Traders in India reported disruptions in their activities.
The outage also affected news organizations like Associated Press, UK’s Sky News, and Australia’s ABC News. Associated Press issued a statement that they were facing “an intermittent service disruption” while Sky News in the UK was not available for around an hour before resuming services at 9 a.m. local time.
Blue Screen errors, also known as STOP code errors, occur when an important hardware or software fails, leading Windows to shut down suddenly. You may get an alert that reads, “Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer” or something similar. These errors might result from hardware or software issues.