The global Microsoft outage has impacted organizations around the world, and the promotional products industry is no exception.
- PPAI Media has set up a form for members to report disruptions to business partners via updates to this article.
- Meanwhile, SAGE, PPAI’s official technology partner, has confirmed to PPAI Media that its system is up and running.
Jo-an Lantz, MAS, president and CEO of Geiger – the No. 5 distributor in the PPAI 100 – predicts that sales will be affected today due to the outage, which kicked businesses around the world offline. Those industries include travel, safety services, finance and healthcare.
“But it won’t have an overall impact [for promo]… just a hiccup,” Lantz says. “Fortunately, we don’t use CloudStrike as an application and all of our systems are up and running and not affected. Our U.K. and European teams were notified shortly after the outage that we continued to be operational. Likewise, U.S. and Philippines were notified first thing this morning that all systems are working. We’re monitoring this closely.”
12-hour timelapse of American Airlines, Delta, and United plane traffic after what was likely the biggest IT outage in history forced a nationwide ground stop of the three airlines. pic.twitter.com/wwcQeiEtVe
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) July 19, 2024
The supply chain may also be affected by travel delays.
- For example, General Motors reported that it had some “minor production interruptions” at some factories because supply companies had trouble delivering parts due to the outage.
The Port of Houston announced that multiple terminals were closed Friday morning because of the outage. “We’re actively working to address the issue and anticipate opening our gates later this morning,” the port posted on its website.
- The Port of Houston is the nation’s largest port for waterborne tonnage, supporting more than 3 million jobs in the U.S. and generating more than $900 billion in nationwide economic value, according to a 2022 study by Martin Associates.
What Happened?
Early Friday, companies in Australia running Microsoft’s Windows operating system began reporting devices showing Blue Screens of Death (BSODs), which indicate a system crash, WIRED reported. Similar reports from around the world, including the United States, quickly followed.
The outage was caused by a flawed software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, according to Microsoft spokesperson Frank X. Shaw. “A CrowdStrike update was responsible for bringing down a number of Windows systems globally,” Shaw told The Associated Press. “We’re actively supporting customers to assist in their recovery.”
There had been a “negative interaction” between the update and Microsoft’s operating system, which caused computers to crash, according to CrowdStrike Founder and CEO George Kurtz.
The underlying cause has been fixed, however, residual impact is continuing to affect some Microsoft 365 apps and services. We're conducting additional mitigations to provide relief. More details can be found within the admin center under MO821132 and on https://t.co/uFnnN6T3jN
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 19, 2024
“We identified this very quickly and remediated the issue,” Kurtz told “The Today Show” on Friday.
CrowdStrike is now “working with each and every customer to make sure that we can bring them back online,” Kurtz said. However, systems won’t “just automatically recover,” as “it could be some time for some systems” to return to normal, he added.
At the same time as the CrowdStrike issues emerged, Microsoft was also contending with its own outage of its Azure cloud services, The Register reported.
- As a result of Microsoft 365 being down, customers may not be able to access SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Teams, Intune, PowerBI, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Defender and Viva Engage.
“This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core internet infrastructure,” Ciaran Martin, former Head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Center and currently a professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, told The New York Times.
Mass Disruption
American Airlines, United and Delta have all grounded flights, with more than 1,000 flights in the United States canceled as of 8 a.m. EST and more than 3,000 flights delayed, according to tracking service FlightAware.
Healthcare systems around the U.S. are also reporting disruptions.
- Mass General Brigham, a nonprofit that operates one of the largest hospital systems in Massachusetts, has canceled all “non-urgent visits” at its hospitals and clinics on Friday.
- Meanwhile, officials in Alaska, Virginia and Iowa have warned of 911 problems in their areas.
Several TV stations in the U.S. were unable to broadcast their local news programs on Friday morning, The Associated Press reported.
“I don’t think it’s too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history,” tweeted cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt, who compared the ongoing situation to what people feared would happen with Y2K.