A faulty Windows software update deployed to computers overnight ended up grounding flights, disrupting medical services and knocking banks offline. Amidst the chaos, broadcast outlets across the globe grappled with their own obstructed services and intermittent blackouts while working to keep the public informed.
In a statement online, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz confirmed that the global IT outage was caused by a problematic Falcon content update for Windows Hosts, which was deployed by his company. CrowdStrike Holdings is an American cybersecurity technology company based in Austin, Texas. It provides cloud workload protection and endpoint security, threat intelligence and cyberattack response services.
“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” wrote Kurtz on X. “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”
Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected.
We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
In a statement on its website, CrowdStrike said Mac and Linux hosts were not impacted.
Radio World reached out to several major radio groups in the U.S. to see what services were affected, if any. As of noon Eastern Time, iHeartMedia and Cumulus reported no disruptions.
An Audacy spokesperson, however, told Radio World in an email that, “like many companies around the world, we did experience issues as a result of today’s outages. All of our stations were back up and running by 8:00 a.m. ET.”
On Friday, our sister publication TVBEurope reported various disruptions to UK-based broadcast organizations. It said Sky News UK and Sky Sports News were taken off air by what’s being described as the “biggest IT outage of all time.”
“Australian broadcasters were also forced off air, with both Sky News Australia and ABC hit,” wrote TVBEurope.
In light of the global computer problems caused by the Microsoft software update, FEMA is advising alerting authorities to verify their access to the IPAWS system and check the functions of the tools and applications they use to create and send alerts.
But the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System itself has not been affected, according to an email from the organization.
“IPAWS is fully operational,” it wrote in the email on Friday morning Eastern Time.
