Microsoft CloudStrike outage takes down vital government agencies

Millions of workers worldwide could be without their next paycheck due to the CrowdStrike outage.

Global Payroll Association (GPA) issued the warning Friday afternoon, after finding its customers cannot access their payroll systems.

Melanie Pizzey, the CEO of GPA, told the Telegraph that the group has ‘been contacted by numerous clients already today who have been unable to access their payroll software due to the Microsoft outage.

‘We could see a backlog with regard to processing payrolls for the coming month end which may delay employees from receiving their monthly wage.’

GPA explained that people set to receive their earned wages on Friday should be in the clear, but those due next week ‘could potentially encounter delays.’

The major issue is that many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and one missed check could be devastating.

A survey conducted in May 2024 showed that more than 66 percent of people typically spend their paycheck within the first week or two weeks of receiving it.

Tech mogul Elon Musk has announced he has removed Crowdstrike from all his systems amid the ongoing glitch.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO made the announcement on social media platform X.

Passengers at airports face mounting misery as the number of cancelled flights continues to rise.

More than 2,000 flights have been cancelled amid the ongoing internet blackout, according to FlightAware.

Travellers also face delays and problems checking in due to the global tech crisis.

United and American Airlines has since resumed service following a temporary ground stop.

New York state regulators urged banks and companies to be on high-alert amid the global tech outage on Friday, saying it is monitoring institutions and market events and working with other state and federal regulators.

The New York State Department of Financial Services ‘reminds all regulated entities to be vigilant at this time’.

‘Threat actors have been known to launch attacks during periods when IT and security staff are distracted, especially through social engineering,’ it said in a statement.

The department supervises more than 3,000 financial institutions in New York, including banks and trust companies.

Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz stressed that the outage itself was not linked to any cyber attack.

The flaw that caused a global IT outage Friday could take 36 hours to fix, analysts told DailyMail.com, as disrupted airlines, banks and more scramble fix their systems.

Commercial air traffic spanning continents from the United States to Europe, Australia and India ground to halt — as did myriad sectors of society now running on Microsoft systems impacted by a faulty update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike.

‘It’s a black eye moment for Crowdstrike,’ tech market analyst Dan Ives told DailyMail.com, ‘and an epic disaster for the global IT community.’

Starbucks has become the latest victim of the global internet outage which has plunged the travel sector into chaos, suspended medical surgeries and disrupted banking services worldwide.

Users of the mobile app are currently being greeted with an error message which states online ordering is not available.

Motor vehicle services are down across the nation, leaving Americans unable to obtain driver’s licenses and other related materials.

The agency is just one of several impacted by the CrowdStrike’s bug-filled update.

The Department of Homeland Security is also offline, raising the national security risk.

While it is unknown what services the agency cannot access, a manager told Fed Scoop that staff cannot get into their desktop computers and are forced to work via phones.

The White House has been briefed on the matter and is working with the cybersecurity company.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security shared on X that they ‘are working with CrowdStrike, Microsoft and our federal, state, local and critical infrastructure partners to fully assess and address system outages.’

The Justice Department has also been affected, along with the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Energy Department and the Social Security Administration.

The DOJ Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) is actively troubleshooting possible workarounds with Component CIOs and technical teams while CrowdStrike, the vendor, is attempting to resolve the problem,’ a spokesperson told FedScoop.

Many motor vehicle sites are experiencing issues, making it impossible to process online transactions or in-person visits.

A hearing for Harvey Weinstein’s retrial on rape and sexual assault charges has been delayed due to the ongoing internet outage, his representatives confirmed.

The disgraced movie mogul was due to appear at New York Supreme Criminal Court on Friday as prosecutors prepare to retry him following the reversal of his 2020 rape conviction.

Downstairs, a note was pinned to the door of the arraignments room at Manhattan Criminal Court which stated that the court’s systems are down.

The interruption fueled a backlog of at least 125 cases.

‘Due to the outage, this office is unable to answer questions,’ the note reads.

Slot machines at Las Vegas casinos have fallen silent amid the ongoing internet blackout.

‘Every single slot machine is down,’ Green Valley Ranch Casino employee Pita Tusitala told the Las Vegas Review Journal. ‘Everybody is upset’.

He added that staff were going from machine to machine to manually cash people out.

Elsewhere, a visitor to the South Point Casino shared a photo showing the so-called ‘blue screen of death’ on monitors.

Long lines have sprung up at airports across the country as flights grind to a halt amid the blackout.

Disgruntled passengers have already begun demanding compensation after more than 26,000 flights were delayed as of Friday morning.

Travelers wait in line at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore.

Spirit Airlines customers set up camp at the departure area at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport.

American Airline baggage handler walks through a crowd at Philadelphia International Airport during a system outage delaying travel

President Biden is being kept up to date on the outage as he recuperates from Covid-19.

‘The president has been briefed on the CrowdStrike outage and his team is in touch with CrowdStrike and impacted entities,’ a White House official said.

‘His team is engaged across the interagency to get sector by sector updates throughout the day and is standing by to provide assistance as needed.’

The president is currently recovering at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he is self-isolating folliowing a postitive Covid test.

The Federal Communications Commission said it has received reports of 911 outages across the coutnry.

‘We’re aware of reports of a systems outage causing disruptions in service, including 911,’ the agency said.

‘We’re working closely with other federal agencies to provide assistance and determine the extent of these service disruptions.’

Outages were reported in Ohio, New Hampshire, Alaska and Arizona.

However, police in Phoenix said their 911 call center services are now back online.

Stock prices for both Microsoft and Crowdstrike plunged as trading began on Friday amid the fallout from the historic internet outage.

Crowdstrike Holdings Inc was down 15.25 percent on the NASDAQ index at 9.30am ET, while Microsoft Corp shares fell by 1.63 percent.

Crowdstrike has since deployed a fix for the problem, which sent Microsoft systems dark around the world.

The New York Stock Exchange opened as normal despite the blackout.

Frightened healthcare staff and patients are documenting the chaos inside hospitals caused by a major worldwide IT outage on social media.

In one TikTok video, a woman in a breathing mask suggested her electronic medical records could not be accessed, leaving her unable to get the correct meds.

In another, staff can be heard shouting with panicked voices as the camera pans to a a computer that has been knocked offline and is showing a so-called ‘screen of death’.

Meanwhile a nurse in California detailed how staff have had to revert to pen and paper and using iPhones to treat patients and prescribe drugs, raising the risk of errors.

Crowdstrike founder and CEO George Kurtz has apologized after an update to his company’s software sparked a historic internte outage.

Kurtz told NBC’s today show he is ‘deeply sorry’ for the impact.

The cybersecurity firm is now working to reboot its systems, which could take some time for them to fully recover.

The historic outage left the skies above the US all but empty after a ground stop was enacted by three major airlines.

Almost 1,300 flights within or into the US have been axed so far today, according to FlightAware.

‘Delta has resumed some flights after a vendor technology issue impacting airlines and businesses globall,’ the airline said in an update.

‘We’ve issued a travel waiver and customers can monitor and manage their itineraries online or through the Fly Delta app.’

Desperate passengers have resorted to camping out on airport floors as delays leave them stuck for more than 24 hours in some cases.

One traveller told how she had been at LAX Airport for nine hours before spending a further four at Charlotte Douglas International Airport with around 2,000 other stranded passengers.

‘I just want to go home,’ she said. It’s crazy. We’re at the Charlotte airport and it is packed like any aisle, hallway you turn down the hallwasy are lined with people sleeping.’

Mass General Brigham – one of the biggest healthcare systems in America – has axed all non-urgent visits, procedures and surgeries amid a global IT failure.

Hospitals were thrown into chaos overnight when the outage knocked out Windows systems around the world, knocking computers and medical devices offline and forcing medical staff to revert to pen and paper.

Mass General Brigham in Boston – which sees 2.5million patients a year – said its clinics and ERs would continue provide care to patients who have urgent health problems.

‘We continue to care for all patients currently receiving care in our hospitals,’ the healthcare provider added.

‘We have dedicated every available resource to resolve this issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize for the inconvenience this has caused our patients.

‘It is our highest priority to ensure that our patients receive the safest care possible.’

Tufts Medical Center and South Shore Health were also experiencing issues linked to the global tech outage.

Transport officials in New York say they are unable to track the location of their subways amid the outage.

While dispatchers can still see the trains and there are no safety concerns, many passengers have been left in the dark.

Crowdstrike deployed a fix at around 5:30am ET for an issue that caused the ‘most serious IT outage the world has ever seen.’

The cybersecurity firm is now working to reboot its systems, which could take some time for them to fully recover.

CEO George Kurtz said the issue is ‘not a security incident or cyberattack’ but is a ‘defect’ in a ‘single content update for Windows hosts.

‘The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.’

The outage was triggered by a faulty update to its Falcon Sensor software.

Microsoft acknowledged the Windows meltdown, saying: ‘We are aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform.

‘We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming.’

The outage has had an impact on some Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) customer information systems, according to officials. The glitch means countdown clocks and information boards are not functioning.

Trains and buses should not be affected, but passengers are advised to listen out for updates.

The New York and New Jesery Port Authority said it has not been affected, but is advising customers not to head to the airport unless flight status has been confirmed

Georgia’s Atlanta International Airport is currently the worst hit by travel disruption, with 37 cancelled flights and 58 delays, according to Flight Aware’s Misery Map.

Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina is the second worst affected, with 17 cancellations.

New York City’s La Guardia had grounded 13 flights as of Friday morning, with dozens more delays.

Around one in 20 flights originating in the US have been cancelled already, with almost 19,000 total delays.

American Airlines says its flights are returning to normal, but other major carriers such as Delta, Allegiant, Spirit and Frontier are still grounded.

The FAA said it is ‘closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines’.

At New Jersey’s Newark International Airport where around 600 flights leave daily, the departures monitor was completely blank and displayed a blue error screen.