A CrowdStrike update glitch has caused a global IT outage via Microsoft cloud servers, causing massive disruptions for businesses, news organizations and nearly every part of the global transport sector with flights grinding to a halt Friday. The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq are operating normally.
Across the world Friday, electronic devices running Microsoft's Windows operating system crashed. CrowdStrike announced that Mac and Linux had not been impacted. Airports and airlines dealt with disruptions while financial firms and other businesses also scrambled in the wake of major IT issues. In the U.S., many 911 and non-emergency call centers weren't working properly, according to news reports.
However, the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq are up and running.
"NYSE markets are fully operational and we expect a normal open this morning," NYSE spokesperson told IBD.
CrowdStrike Chief Executive George Kurtz posted to X early Friday that the company is "actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts."
"This is not a security incident or cyberattack," Kurtz added. "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed."
CrowdStrike Outage Causes Major Disruptions Worldwide
CrowdStrike Outage: Airlines, News and Shipping
Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines halted departures, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Those stocks showed little impact early Friday.
In Europe, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport was not allowing arriving airplanes and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said it had suspended most operations. London's Gatwick Airport said it was experiencing IT issues. Heathrow Airport reported it was experiencing some issues but that flights were operational.
Investor's Business Daily parent News Corp said outages hit the New York Post, its Dow Jones' properties and other businesses. Sky News, one of the U.K.'s major news channels, was unable to broadcast live shows Friday.
As of early Friday morning, the global shipping industry appeared little impacted, according to reports. The maritime sector has not digitized much of its key information.
However, the CrowdStrike outage has affected the Baltic Hub port in Gdansk, Poland. The port management released a statement saying the port is "struggling with a global outage of Microsoft operating systems, which impedes the functioning of the terminal."
"Please do not come to the Terminal," it added.
Shipping stocks Scorpio Tankers and Frontline were mixed early Friday. Both STNG and FRO sit on the Russell 2000 index. Fellow shipping stock Dorian LPG fell a fraction.
ZIM Integrated Shipping and Golden Ocean Group gained ground Friday.
Please follow Kit Norton on X @KitNorton for more coverage.
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