Author of How to Prep When You’re Broke and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
A massive technology outage is wreaking havoc worldwide. Early reports blame the chaos on an issue with Microsoft, the dominant operating system for desktop computers and the software Falcon from Crowdstrike. We’ve been assured this isn’t a cyberattack, but a software glitch affecting the OS of computers across the world.
Here are some of the ways this outage is causing global chaos today.
Flights grounded
American Airlines, United, Frontier, and Delta made a drastic move, grounding all flights.
The ground stop impacted all flights from the airlines, regardless of their destination, the Federal Aviation Administration said. As of mid-Friday morning, more than 600 flights into, out of or within the United States had been canceled, according to FlightAware.com.
The outage does NOT impact flights that were in the air when it occurred. The problem is with the other processes, such as check-in, luggage, and booking.
American Airlines has since resolved the problem, and its flights are resuming. But for tens of thousands of other travelers, chaos and uncertainty still reign in the airports.
As well, in New York City, the Metropolitan Transit Authority has also had its systems go offline.
Banking disrupted
Around the world, operations have ground to a halt at many major banks, including:
- Commonwealth Bank in Australia
- Capitec in South Africa
- Certain operations at Barclay’s in the UK
- Banks in Israel, which have not been named at the time of this post
Some of the issues have been the inability to use ATMs, access online banking, and self-checkout registers. As well, the London Stock Exchange website is unable to update.
911 outages
According to Newsweek, 911 services in many parts of the country have been affected.
Emergency services and access to 911 operators have been affected in multiple states as a major IT outage causes chaos worldwide.
Alaska State Troopers posted on Facebook on Thursday night: “Due to a nationwide technology-related outage, many 911 and non-emergency call centers are not working correctly across the State of Alaska.”
They added that in the case of emergency, alternative numbers can be contacted.
New Hampshire also experienced a service outage overnight, but it has since been restored, according to the Department of Safety, local ABC affiliate WMUR reported.
In Phoenix, Arizona, emergency services have faced further issues. As some computers stopped working, dispatchers had no access to the internet or their usual systems, and were manually writing down information for first responders, according to local news outlet The Arizona Republic.
Downdetector has also noted a spike in reports about 911 services.
Medical services interrupted
Health systems and hospitals around the world have reported issues with their systems as well. Israeli Health Services has reported problems and NHS has said that most general practitioner offices in the UK have been affected.
News broadcasts down
In some areas, major mainstream media outlets are at a complete standstill.
Australian and British broadcasters SBS, Network 10, the ABC and Sky News Australia and Sky News UK were all taken off air.
What caused all of this?
CNN reports that the issue originated with a software update issued by CrowdStrike. It is specifically affecting Falcon, one of CrowdStrike’s main cybersecurity software products.
CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software — used by numerous Fortune 500 companies — detects and blocks hacking threats. Like other cybersecurity products, the software requires deep-level access to a computer’s operating system to scan for those threats. In this case, computers running Microsoft Windows appear to be crashing because of the faulty way a software code update issued by CrowdStrike is interacting with the Windows system.
George Kurtz, the CEO of CrowdStrike says that they have identified the problem and deployed a fix. Here’s the statement he released to the media:
CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.
The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.
We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.
One little glitch caused mass chaos.
Regardless of the cause, this certainly goes a long way toward reminding us how much our systems are reliant on computers. While they do make many things far easier, many businesses are entirely unable to function without them.
It’s just a glimpse into the disaster we could face with a significant cyber attack or other service outage.
Hopefully, this will be shortlived but also provide a cautionary tale for the businesses affected.
Are any of your services affected?
Have you experienced any issues related to this glitch? If so, can you tell us about it? Do you think there is a problem aside from the software?
Let’s discuss it in the comments section.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites. 1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2) The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.
Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.
This hasn’t directly affected me except for one appointment cancelled. It is a wakeup call. I’ve gotten lax w/some of my preps and keeping cash on hand. Time to reevaluate and set up some new routines.
My hospital appointments for cancer treatment were all canceled. I stopped at the gas station to fill up on the way home and found that none of my bank cards worked.
No matter how prepared you are, sometimes it takes a moment to realize that it ain’t a rain shower coming down on your head.
My hubby is stuck in Atlanta as I read this. No flights, no rental cars, no hotels due to thousands of flights being cancelled. His flights just keep being rebooked then cancelled. I’m about ready to get in the car & get him.
That sucks. Depending on where you are coming from it might be worth it.
My husband went to a funeral Friday. We had no troubles. And I hope it the same coming back.
He eventually caught a flight but Thursday sat on the tarmack in Atlanta for 3 hours then had to deboard. He spent the night in the airport & did not sleep for 24 hours. It’s making us really consider driving on our frequent trips now.
These things are happening a little too frequently and shows just how easily everything can be shut down in an instant. I did have a forced update on my work computer and things were slow to log in this morning.m but that was it for me. Other people in my dept are still reporting issues. A friend was traveling to Jamaica today to visit family and her flight has been delayed which will likely cause her to miss the connecting flight. These incidents make me think twice about traveling so far from home or at least stay on connected land.
So grateful that my Mom doesn’t need critical care while she is at the hospital! Trinity Health system seems unaffected by this, so Thank God!
It is quite likely that Technology will be the cause of a World wide SHTF. Actually some glitch, malware, virus, etc., one that can not be fixed.
Just imagine a world with out cellphones, internet, computers and everything that they control. That is the SHTF that we all need to prep for.
yep its pitiful to watch even kids when their phones dont work, lol. our society is so glued to the internet, cells, technology, its truly pathetic! soon this will ALL go down, all our tech, our utilities, everything, and then we’ll all be “up the creek without a paddle”….our society cant do anything anymore without tech. that has been our ruination of our lives. good luck to all out there when this happens, and it will, sooner than we think. so get prepared as much as possible, and pray a lot. we’re in for a very rough time shortly. stay safe and well everyone. God bless
Out office’s clock in system is down. We use DayForce.
My daughter uses dayforce, but she didn’t mention any issues. We’re on Vancouver Island.
I have only had one problem with my computer system. In the two years (or three) since I’ve had this new computer, it has opened with a blue screen that simply tells me that windows didn’t load properly. I have to restart in order to make the blue screen disappear. That is all. I do not turn my computer off at night, I simply turn the wifi off, and unplug the electric cord from the computer and the outlet and roll up the cord. I restart my computer every week or so, depending on whim alone. I hate to get the updates, so I put them off as long as possible, because they never fail to cause problems, and make me retrain to use this darn thing. The offal that is Microsoft has made it almost impossible to disallow all updates. I would, if I could. But my pittance of trouble isn’t related to this present world-wide glitch, I don’t think. I hope you all stay safe out there, and remain trouble free. Keep prepping. Keep the head-swivel well lubricated.
Blessings to you,
OD
This is a PS: I think this is just the elites checking out the system, so they’ll know they get it right when they want to. The total failure of our system in computer-land will probably come from or through a “compromised” “security system” like crowd-strike. (Note the separated quotes). Blessings to you, from the OD.
Not applying updates is a double edged sword. On one hand, you’re correct in that they have real potential to break things. On the other, you run the risk of leaving yourself vulnerable to exploits and getting your computer compromised.
Was getting ready to book my flight up north to see my kids n help my uncle with his preps but had a really bad feeling then I read this and a friend of mine in Dallas called me n told me. I’ll be driving up north. Been lax also about cash on hand also n tend to spend it. I think this is a preview, a test if u will, of what’s to come permanently. Pray and prepare. All that’s happening right now is to divide us, let’s not be divided
The internet is down at all of the Louisiana State offices. Looks like it’s going to be a slow morning…
So far this morning, things are fine here in Texas. I didn’t know there were problems until I began reading your newsletter. Let’s pray the problems are fixed or resolved soon.
Patters and Timing. It’s all about them both.
Trump gets shot, and now this. Enough said.
Oops!
Well, we were supposed to have a meeting with our financial advisor this morning, but he cannot get into his system.
This is a good example of the single point of failure paradigm.
And, never use Microsoft Winders.
Seeing pics and vids on X, of chaos at airports.
It is being call International Blue Screen of Death Day.
I’ve been unable to get on Prepper Website for about a week, maybe longer.
Is anyone else having this problem?
I have had the same problem and am uncertain of the cause.
Update. I just left my credit union getting cash and there was a line of people behind me doing same. Also I deposited my husband’s check from a job for materials which generally gives him ability to pull $300 right away and it’s not showing up as even deposited. I have receipt n bank teller said it may take 2 business days and that the “glitch” hasn’t affected them thus far
No issues with our network at the library system, but we don’t use CrowdStrike for security. However, the City does and they’ve been working all night to fix the issue.
Thank God I have a Mac, so no issues here. But this is a wake up call for everyone! All of the things we now depend on electronically can be shut off in an instant. Got cash for emergencies? Your debt cards won’t be of any use. Got supplies in the pantry? Fast food, the grocery stores, or restaurants either won’t be open or on the cash only system. With Trump surviving the assassination attempt, and now this…..I feel like God is saying “This isn’t a coincidence!” Time to reset my Bingo Card.
Yup have food, garden, some cash- not a lot but plenty for a few gas fillups and a bit more. Actually if nothing were said I wouldn’t have noticed.
The cause is simple, it was a mistake. Not in the sense that you might think at first but in that the program they were developing to create chaos in November was being tested and someone hit the go-live button by mistake.
Look at the ramifications. None. It was an accident caused by the good guys. Random sectors of transportation, communications, healthcare and banking all get knocked off for 24 to 48 hours. No data stolen. No breach of security. No follow-up criminal investigation of this accident. Just an accident. Nothing to see here, move along.
Watch for a repeat in late October of right at election day. Create confusion without resultant direct harm and no one gets blamed.
We are transferring our computers to Linux instead of windows. They instituted where you had to download updates every 35 days even if you were on a metered internet without exception. That and other stuff about Microsoft just means they want to control too much of our lives. We would be fine if we did not have cell phones or internet, not so much any of our neighbors. Wish we could find like minded people in the north (we do not do well in the heat so southern states are out).
My Fiance is a shortwave radio guy: every vehicle and a few handhelds. We can communicate with family.
I installed Linux on an older laptop 4 years ago and found it very easy to install and use. Very much Windows-like. In that time frame, there has only been 1 thing (a download) that wouldn’t work with Linux but would with Windows. Go ahead and make the switch …
And South Dakota is pretty friendly (and mostly still sane)!
I have been running some variant of Linux for well over a decade. Put me on a Winders box now, I would be lost.
My father had a laptop with MS Winders of some kind. One day it took over 5 minutes to load the OS, then would not log him in. He lost all his data. Frustrated, he just bought a new box.
I downloaded a Mint Linux .iso, loaded it to a bootable USB stick, got into the BIOS of the laptop to boot from USB first. Then blew away the MS OS, and loaded the Mint Linux. Had it up and running in 20 minutes. It is now my music server.
What distro did you go with?
In the past, I have ran OpenSuse, Mint, Ubuntu, but found myself going back to Debian.
Does anyone use AlertUSA? It is a paid service that utilizes the messaging sent to emergency personnel, diplomats, ambassadors etc to notify them of immediate worldwide issues. It is very useful. I get alerts before headlines are posted. It can be a bit scary at times. For instance last night the alert initially came across as “all airline transportation down worldwide”. It was a few minutes before an update came. Scary. But I was considering any needed or immediate response. Also, I am In Alaska so the 911 outage prompted a bit of a worry also. Semper FI. Moniqueo
Interesting. My only worry in communication is for a sons widow and daughter in a foreign country. Currently we use Messenger from facebook. It has been fine today.
interesting name: CrowdStrike.. so they are supposed to protect against cyber attacks but actually “glitch” to strike the crowds.. how ominous. Needles to say my microsoft windows does the blue screen randomly anyway over the years so as a prepper keep a solid backup and prepare to re-install windows frequently. Their updates are the main cause of disruption. Glad Bill Gates is not running it anymore otherwise we would have more virusus to contend with..
Kinda weird thing here. I use my iPhone as a hot spot for my laptop. No issues there. But I’m unable to make certain phone calls. I get a message. “Your call cannot be completed at this time. Please try again later”. It’s been like this all day.
Can’t figure out why that would be connected to this outage.
Interesting and thought-provoking. I had no problems talking with my sons widow in another country using Messaging from Facebook. We’ve talked several times today. No problem. Sometimes we text there and sometimes video chat there.
Not so Free:
Because the phone call attaches to different hardware than the internet signal. It is Possible the out bound phone connecting hardware is hitting a CrowdStrike impaired unit.
I traded my work on the slaughter and processing of two cows for one heifer of my choice from the customers herd to my pasture.
Nope. No computor issues here.
I have no problems for me but it sounds horrible for those affected.
Why the outage caused by CrowdStrike Daisy. All together class. Let’s sing it.
If you’re a DEI hire and you know it, clap your hands
If you’re DEI and you know it, clap your hands
If you’re DEI and you know it, then your crappy software will surely show it
If you’re DEI and you know it, clap your hands.
If you’re DEI and you know it, stomp your feet
If you’re DEI and you know it, stomp your feet
If you’re DEI and you know it, then your BSOD software will surely show it
If you’re DEI and you know it, stomp your feet.
If you’re DEI and you know it, shout “Hurray!”
If you’re DEI and you know it, shout “Hurray!”
If you’re DEI and you know it, then your failures will surely show it
If you’re DEI and you know it, shout “Hurray!”
See
CrowdStrike’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion
https://www.crowdstrike.com/careers/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/
Our approach to cultivating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture is rooted in listening, learning and collective action. By embracing the diversity of our people, we achieve our best work and fuel innovation – generating the best possible outcomes for our customers and the communities they serve.
We live on Vancouver Island. My daughter works for a car dealership and she told me this morning that they haven’t been able to finalize the sale of any cars. I had no clue about anything until she sent me a text.
My wife is a scheduler for a major hospital network here in Missouri. Many of her co-workers did not get paid yesterday because their banks were affected. That didn’t happen to us, but for those who live paycheck to paycheck, that’s a huge stressor.
I work at a university and we got hit pretty hard, including critical infrastructure. The fix is relatively easy and amounts to booting into recovery mode and deleting the offending file. However this requires admin privileges on the PC, which most organizations don’t give to general users. Consequently, you have many places where a handful of individuals have the task of fixing many PCs.
This also shows why policies such as forcing mass updates, especially to critical machines is a bad approach. While it’s often necessary or important to apply updates, on anything critical ten times a delayed approach would be better.
I went to B of A to deposit into my landlord’s account for rent. Walked out. Then went to service center at my HEB to register my vehicle, DPS was also affected so yesterday was a dry run except getting fuel; I had cash.
Hubs and I use cash as our primary tool of exchange. It is rare for us to use “plastic” for a couple of reasons, the main one being that third parties have no right to know what we purchase.
This is why I don’t automatically accept updates.
Southwest Airlines was not affected by this. Why? Because they’re running an older version of Windblows.
I’m thinking of going back to Ubuntu, and wondering if there’s a way I can “Linux” my phone.
So let me see if I have this Crowdstrike story straight….
When Hillary Clinton was Sec. of State, she was illegally funneling sophisticated weapons through Libya to terrorists in the MidEast in an effort to take out Assad in Syria for Israel. When the weapons transfer went sideways and the US Ambassador was killed in Benghazi, it was discovered she was using an illegal private server for secret communications. She destroyed the server, but not before its contents were leaked by Wikileaks, including communications about bizarre occult rituals and inexplicable code words involving children and pizza. Instead of investigating the leak themselves, the FBI relied on a Crowdstrike investigation that falsely claimed the server was hacked by Russia. The FBI cleared HC despite admitting she broke the law, and launched the Russiagate investigation, using more fake Clinton campaign disinfo to tie Trump to Russia to get a FISA warrant and spy on Trump while leaking dirt to the press to undermine first his campaign, then his presidency. When Trump had a call with Zelenskyy and asked about Crowdstrike, a “whistleblower” falsely claimed quid-pro-quo and launched the first impeachment to stop Trump’s inquiries. (It was in the midst of this impeachment trial, btw, when Event 201 took place. But that’s another story.) Fast forward to 2024 and Trump is dominating Biden when he miraculously survives a deep state orchestrated assassination attempt two days before the RNC. Two days later Crowdstrike causes the biggest computer network crash in all of history, knocking millions of corporate and government systems offline for hours.
Other than the fact that Blackrock owns Crowdstrike and a Blackrock affiliated investment firm placed millions of dollars betting against DJT in the hours before the assassination attempt by a shooter who was featured in a Blackrock promo, did I miss anything?
Excellent post. I know a person who is a Navy SEAL. This is his take on the assassination attempt. “Seems like an inside job and/or one aided by extremely gross negligence!…Watching the video; the shooter got off at least 6-7 shots……AND I DONT hear any rounds from the ‘counter sniper team’. Their guns would make a distinct noise from the 6-7 shots as they are most likely using .308/300WM/338/6.5 calibers, and therefore sound much different.….That ‘different’ noise did NOT happen. In fact, the seated guy with gun on tripod actually FLINCHED and the one lying prone seems to not have moved his weapon at all (no recoil) The last shot heard on the video, likely the kill shot, was of similar sounding – 22-250/.223/5.56 – caliber and was picked up from the same directional mic, indicating it emanated from relatively the same place, the roof. As such, I think the shooter was killed by someone who stormed the roof..NOT a Counter Sniper…..Also, President Trump should have been immediately removed from the stage (get off the “X”!). No, I was not there…Just drawing off of my years of Sniper/Counter Sniper/DDM/PSD/WPS/Dignitary Protection/US Military and PMC experiences. At most, this is/was a government sanctioned assassination attempt. At the very least, this is/was a catastrophic SService failure. Why was @realdonaldtrump denied more SService protection?! …..President Trump needs to use Private Security from experienced former SOCOM Operators.” I hope Trump gets better security.
None of my services were affected, but I did hear a broadcast where a cybersecurity specialist suggested that large companies use more than one cybersecurity service for their businesses. It reminded me of how we need to not be dependent on just one source of anything. This principle is along the same lines as “two is one and one is none”.
The notion that this was an “accident” is possible, but not probable. To have such wide reaching effects on various IT systems scattered across the western hemisphere appears to be more of an experimental test.
Perhaps the “update” was a back door into the win11 platform that might give a remote user the ability to corrupt, disable or shut down critical operating system files at a later date. “Accidents” of this magnitude are often created, and just don’t happen by coincidence. And the people who actually code the updates for the system are very smart individuals, they rate their productivity in LOC/hr. Which is lines of code per hour. After completing coding the updates, the next step is to test them against known working systems running various versions of the target operating systems still in widespread use.
Typically there will be bugs found that cause various issues and they are documented and sent back to the coding team to resolve. This process continues until the issues are resolved. Its actually a little more complex than this, but illustrates the notion its not a random hit and miss procedure. Bugs that result in the BSoD (Blue screen of Death) would NEVER be allowed to be released for general installation, unless done purposefully. (ironically the acronym BSD also stands for a Unix variant named Berkeley Software Development, which produces excellent server grade software..for free! ..FreeBSD!)
However in the final analysis this is all speculation; we will never actually know exactly what happened to create this, or establish the people responsible to hold them to account.
However this is a warning shot over the bow to the uninitiated that the entire system, including core infrastructure is interconnected and extremely vulnerable to computer malfunction. Imagine if the power grid was affected as well? Ugly ugly ugly. Technology and electricity are now embedded in our daily lives whether we wish it or not. Now is the time to have a plan and do some planning and preparing even if just for a week at the very least. As a previous poster put it, he traded work on two cows in his pasture for one heifer of his choice… guess who’s going to eat tonight?