Global Microsoft Outage Disrupts Airlines and Businesses.

NEW DELHI: A major Microsoft software outage has severely disrupted IT networks across multiple businesses, banking services, and international airlines, affecting millions of people globally. In India, the check-in systems for IndiGo, Akasa, and SpiceJet airlines have been impacted nationwide. Airlines worldwide have reported their check-in systems being down since morning due to the outage and are working with Microsoft to resolve the issue. The Mumbai airport has been the hardest hit, while disruptions at Delhi airport are minimal, primarily affecting Terminal 2.

In the United States, the outage has led to the grounding and cancellation of flights. The widespread disruption is reportedly linked to US-based cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike and its ‘Falcon sensor,’ installed on many business computers to gather security data. CrowdStrike acknowledged the issue on its website, stating it is aware of reports of crashes on Windows hosts related to the Falcon sensor. Symptoms include hosts experiencing a bug check and a blue screen error. The company’s engineering teams are actively working to resolve the problem.

Many users in India have also reported outages in Microsoft services on Downdetector. The IT issues are affecting other countries as well, with reports of outages from New Zealand and Japan.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued an advisory following the Microsoft Windows outage. According to the advisory, Windows hosts related to the CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor are experiencing outages and crashes due to a recent product update. Affected Windows hosts are encountering a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) related to the Falcon Sensor. The issues arose after the latest CrowdStrike update, but changes have since been reverted by the CrowdStrike team. CERT-In has provided workarounds for hosts still crashing, including booting Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment, and advised users to check the latest updates on the CrowdStrike portal.

In a post on X late in the evening, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote: “We are working closely with Crowdstrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online.”

The government responded swiftly to the situation, issuing an advisory with steps to resolve the issue. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw posted on X: “Meity is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage. The reason for this outage has been identified and updates have been released to resolve the issue.” The Minister also assured that the National Informatics Centre’s network remains unaffected.

CERT-In, the government’s apex cybersecurity agency, classified the severity rating as critical and suggested steps to manually override the glitch.

As Microsoft works tirelessly to resolve the glitch and mitigate its fallout, investors and businesses worldwide are closely monitoring developments. The tech giant’s ability to swiftly address and recover from this setback will be pivotal in restoring market confidence and reaffirming trust among its extensive user base.