The global disruption that occurred with Microsoft on Friday, July 19, 2024, had a significant impact on various sectors, such as aviation, banking, digital media, and other companies around the world.
The issue continued for several hours even after Microsoft announced that they were gradually fixing the problems affecting access to Microsoft 365 applications and services.
In the aviation sector, many airports worldwide were affected and had to find ways to keep airport operations running despite overwhelming queues of frustrated passengers.
Airlines in various countries, from Thailand to Australia, India, the United States, and several European countries, reported disruptions in their check-in systems and other issues that caused flight delays.
In the country currently hosting the 2024 Olympic Games, France, it was reported that the Microsoft disruption caused check-in delays, flight delays, and temporary cancellations of several flights at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport and Paris-Orly Airport.
In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated that flight schedules from United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and Allegiant Air had been canceled.
At Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports, airports were required to conduct passenger check-ins manually. According to Thailand’s Tourism Director, the main issue was with Navitaire, an e-commerce platform for air travel. This problem affected as many as six airports.
In Germany, flights at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport were halted for several hours from Friday morning due to check-in problems, while several other flights were canceled.
Similar issues like those in German airports were also reported at several busy airports in Europe, such as Amsterdam, Zurich, and Rome.
The Biggest Technology Outage in History
It was reported that on Friday, July 19, 2024, a disruption occurred in Microsoft’s computer network worldwide.
This disruption happened when one of the world’s largest cybersecurity companies, CrowdStrike, attempted to deploy a faulty update while trying to protect their customers’ digital security from hackers.
CrowdStrike itself is a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas, United States, widely used by businesses and government institutions operating on Microsoft network computers.
CrowdStrike confirmed by stating that a defect in one of their updates for computers running the Windows operating system caused this issue. Its impact can be said to be the largest global technology outage in history.
