A global crisis of unprecedented scale took hold in the early hours of this morning while Chicagoans were asleep. On Friday, a widespread Microsoft outage of a magnitude never seen before disrupted flights and companies worldwide, including several major impacts in Chicago.
“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,” said CEO of CrowdStrike George Kurtz. “The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”
What’s the IT outage?
Microsoft’s homepage states that users may experience difficulties accessing various Microsoft 365 apps and services. This outage has been attributed to a software update by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, causing many Windows systems to encounter the notorious “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD) during startup. The BSOD is a system error screen that appears when the Windows operating system encounters a critical error, potentially leading to system crashes and data loss.
How does the outage impact Chicago?
The outage is affecting major airlines, including American, Delta, and United, at O’Hare and Midway Airport. Display screens that typically show flight information are instead displaying blue screens. The FAA announced earlier that United, American, Delta, and Allegiant airlines have all been grounded across the U.S.
How are Chicago trains & buses affected by the outage?
As of this moment, the CTA has not been impacted, and trains and buses are operating this morning. However, there might be delays due to the increased number of passengers opting for public transport because of the grounded flights.