CrowdStrike global Windows crash latest updates — aftermath of the biggest IT outage in history

The devastating IT issue caused by a faulty update pushed to Windows PCs by cyber security company CrowdStrike is continuing to weak havoc days later. The problem first came to global attention early Friday morning, knocking companies and banks offline and grounding planes at various airports. While the initial bug was identified and fixed that same day, the knock-on effects are continuing.

CrowdStrike is used by businesses worldwide, including banks and airports, and the fault occurred due to an update error involving its Falcon Sensor software. When deployed automatically to millions of PCs around the world, it inadvertently put them into a recovery boot loop. The resulting Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) began to appear worldwide and knocked countless systems offline.

While CrowdStrike implemented a fix to the fault, this will only stopped more machines from crashing. It couldn't help those already affected which, according to Microsoft, was about 8.5 million devices worldwide. 

Now the cleanup operation is in full swing as businesses look to recover their lost systems and airlines try to get customers to their final destinations. 

Our live blog below shows the updates as they happened through Friday (July 19) and into the aftermath of what's being called the biggest IT outage in history.

Global Windows IT issue: What we know

A substantial global IT issue knocked Windows PCs offline for banks, broadcasters, airlines, health clinics and more.

• Australian companies first reported the error after broadcasters and banks could not load their Windows machines. Greeted by the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), the devices failed to boot properly, knocking them offline.
• As Europe began to start the work day, it became clear this was a widespread global issue affecting multiple industries. Across the world, flights were grounded due to the error. In the U.K., broadcaster Sky News was unable to broadcast its news bulletin, and clinics were unable to book patient appointments.
• A faulty update caused the issue pushed through from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which meant affected devices could not load correctly.
• At 1:20am ET on Friday, July 19, CrowdStrike issued a support note saying it had identified and reverted the issue. However, this only prevents more machines from hitting the BSOD and can't recover those already affected.
• Microsoft, one of the largest affected companies, appeared to have suffered a separate outage that mainly affected Microsoft 365 apps and services due to a configuration change in its backend Azure settings. The company says it has now fixed these. 
• CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz posted to X at 5:45am ET/10:45am BST that the issue was caused by a "single update for Windows hosts" and that the "issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed." However, the knock-on effects are continuing to cause mass disruption.
• Microsoft's Satya Nadella commented on the issue stating that Microsoft is aware of the situation. "We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike," reads his X post.
• CrowdStrike posted a technical breakdown of what happened. It's a lot of information, but if you want to know more than "it was a software update," it's worth reading.
• Airlines are trying to recover, but passengers are reporting long wait times at airports to get on their flights.
• Thousands of flights were canceled on Saturday worldw