Microsoft 365 announced it is taking “mitigation actions” to resolve the issue, which has impacted users’ access to apps and services.

In the UK, the outage led to Sky News going off the air on Friday morning. Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which operates Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express, and Great Northern, along with TransPennine Express, issued alerts. Ryanair warned of “potential disruptions across the network,” and Edinburgh Airport reported longer waiting times due to the outage.

Crowdsourced website Downdetector indicated outages at several banks and telecom companies. The cyber outage is believed to be linked to an issue at global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

The outage caused shares of CrowdStrike to plunge 18% in premarket trading, while Microsoft stock dropped over 2%. The tech giant attributed the issue to a recent update of CrowdStrike’s Falcon software, which impacted its Windows platforms.

“We have been made aware of an issue impacting Virtual Machines running Windows Client and Windows Server, running the CrowdStrike Falcon agent, which may encounter a bug check (BSOD) and get stuck in a restarting state,” Microsoft said.

Insurance industry on high alert

The global insurance industry is closely monitoring the situation, as the outage underscores vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure that can lead to significant business interruptions. Insurers are assessing the potential surge in claims related to operational disruptions, especially from sectors heavily reliant on digital services like aviation, banking, and healthcare. The incident highlights the critical importance of robust cyber insurance coverage and risk management strategies in mitigating the financial impact of such widespread technological failures.

Speaking to Insurtech Insights, David Derigiotis, President of Brokerage and Head of Insurance, Flow Specialty said: “CrowdStrike operates in more than 176 countries with the CrowdStrike Falcon reportedly processing more than 30 billion endpoint events daily worldwide. This could end up costing organizations billions of dollars in lost revenue collectively and already appears to be the largest IT outage in history.”

Sid Mouncey, CEO of Blink Parametric, took to Linkedin to share reports, saying: “It’s times like these that real-time parametric solutions really deliver for customers of insurers and insurers claims teams alike.

“Blink Parametric is here to enable your travel insurance or travel brand to provide automated real time help to customers when flights are delayed or cancelled – we are busy helping our existing insurer partners today and relieving the pain for their customers.”

He concluded: “Get in contact if you want to enable your travel insurance with this surge proof capability for the future.”

According to a report by Yahoo News, Holidaymakers affected by the global IT outage are advised to check their travel insurance coverage. With many families planning getaways during school holidays, it’s crucial to understand what their policy covers.

MoneySuperMarket Travel Insurance states that if a policy includes travel disruption coverage, travelers may claim for disruptions or losses due to delays or cancellations. This might cover alternative accommodation, travel, food, and drink expenses, and potentially the full cost of the holiday if it cannot proceed.

However, the website warns that not all policies include this as standard. Coverage levels, conditions, and exclusions vary between providers, so contacting the insurer should be the first step.

Security failings to blame

Al Lakhani, CEO of IDEE, an online security and authentication provider, said the impact across the global business community could not be underestimated: “Many people might be thanking Microsoft for their accidental day off, but countless businesses are suffering due to Microsoft’s and their partners’ failure to maintain their services. This incident underscores the importance of businesses thoroughly researching and vetting their cybersecurity solutions before implementation. Microsoft clearly fell short in this regard, and we are witnessing a cascade of operational failures around the world as a result.

“This incident underscores the importance of businesses thoroughly researching and vetting their cybersecurity solutions before implementation. Microsoft clearly fell short in this regard, and we are witnessing a cascade of operational failures around the world as a result.

“CrowdStrike’s platform approach, which relies on a single agent focused on detection, might seem good at first glance, but as we can see, it can create significant issues. For instance, agents require installation and maintenance of software on multiple different OSes, adding layers of complexity and potential points of failure. Moreover, agents can become a single point of failure, as a bad update can compromise the entire network, as seen with the SolarWinds attack.

He continued: “The lesson here is blindingly obvious: investing in cybersecurity is not just about acquiring the latest or most popular tools but ensuring those tools are reliable and resilient. This is why businesses must prioritise agentless solutions like MFA 2.0, which reduce the risk of widespread failures and ensure more resilient defences.”

The US Federal government held an emergency meeting, convened by the National Emergency Management Agency, to address the situation. Attendees included major supermarket and retail chains, telcos, internet providers, banking and finance representatives, airlines, utility heads, transport and logistics operators, and state and territory government representatives.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) was also impacted, with a global technical problem hindering news publication on its website. While other LSE services remained operational, the RNS news service was affected by a third-party technical fault.

Outage reported by a subset of Azure users in the Central US region

The issues began in the United States late Thursday, attributed to a breakdown of Microsoft services such as Azure and 365. Frontier Airlines grounded flights for over two hours due to the outage.

Microsoft confirmed the outage started at 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, with difficulties reported by a subset of Azure users in the Central US region. The company is working to reroute impacted traffic to alternative systems to alleviate the disruption.

In the UK, massive queues developed at train stations, including London’s Waterloo Station, where passengers were unable to access ticket machines. The NHS confirmed that most GP surgeries were hit by the outage, affecting patient notes, blood tests, and imaging results.

Dr. Farah Jameel, a GP in central London, described the situation as “unsafe,” highlighting the significant interruption to clinical care.

Meanwhile, easyJet advised customers travelling from Spanish airports to arrive three hours ahead of their flights due to potential disruptions caused by the IT outage.

Several reports suggested that some of the problems stemmed from CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. cybersecurity software. Microsoft is investigating the situation, while CrowdStrike representatives were not immediately available for comment.

The outage has had a global impact, with disruptions reported in Asia, where Japanese users experienced glitches with Microsoft 365. Airlines at Mumbai and Hong Kong airports reverted to manual check-ins. The failures followed a recent Azure cloud services outage that Microsoft had claimed to have resolved.

Reporting by Joanna England