On July 19th, Microsoft's computer system crashed globally, causing chaos in various industries such as airlines, banks, telecommunications companies, media, and healthcare. The system of electric vehicle giant Tesla was also affected.
The Microsoft system crash is related to issues arising from the technology updates of global cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. This led to a sharp drop of over 20% in Crowdstrike's US stock price before opening, and a drop of over 3% in Microsoft's pre-market stock price.
The information provided by AWS to reporters shows that reports of network connectivity and restart issues with Windows instances, Windows workspaces, and Appstream applications are related to the latest update to the CrowdStrike driver csagent.sys, which resulted in a stop error (BSOD) in the Windows operating system. Currently, CrowdStrike has provided manual solutions to this issue. AWS cloud services and network connectivity are operating normally.
This is a sustained major IT disruption event that has had a global impact in recent years, and companies are currently working hard to respond and restore their networks. CrowdStrike also stated that it is currently withdrawing the update globally.
A person in charge of a domestic cybersecurity company told a First Financial reporter, "The impact of this incident is widespread, mainly due to the large installation volume of the Windows system and the occurrence of bugs in the cybersecurity system. This is a product failure that can only be fixed without any alternative methods, unless uninstalled
On a global scale, major US airlines ordered flight suspensions on Friday citing communication issues, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and others. Ryanair Europe has also issued a warning to passengers, stating that there may be a risk of system interruption.
Hong Kong International Airport is also in chaos, with passengers having to manually check in, but flight operations have not been interrupted.
The Microsoft system crash has also affected the business of multinational corporations in China. The first financial reporter learned that the global network systems of electric vehicle giant Tesla, media company PRNewswire, and medical and health company Acuway have all been affected.
Our IT department is repairing one computer after another, causing a global explosion. Systems in India, Europe, and China have experienced network outages, but half of the computers can still continue to work, "a foreign company insider told First Financial reporters.
The first financial reporter learned that some Tesla employees have also reported experiencing a system blue screen during the process of updating reports, and are currently trying to recover.
In addition, Microsoft's Windows Server also runs on Amazon Web Services' Elastic Cloud Server (Amazon EC2). AWS stated in a statement that it is investigating reports of interrupted connections between Windows EC2 instances and workspaces.
It is understood that many hotels use Windows based computers to manage critical business such as room reservations, financial records, and customer information, and blue screen incidents may cause these systems to malfunction. This will affect the daily operation of the hotel, causing customers to encounter delays or errors in check-in, checkout, and other processes.
It is reported that this malfunction has affected the bookings of many international hotel chains, including Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, and InterContinental, all of which have been affected to varying degrees.
Zhao Gang (pseudonym), who was on a business trip in Tianjin, told First Financial reporters that he was checking in at around 2:25 pm this afternoon at the InterContinental Tianjin Haihe Holiday Hotel when the system was completely paralyzed and the room card could not be made. All processes are manually processed on paper, but fortunately they are well-organized in their 'original' state. He commented, "This global blue screen has tested the management processes and emergency measures of many teams
Another Internet practitioner who was on a business trip in Singapore also told the reporter of First Finance and Economics that when he checked out of the hotel owned by Marriott Singapore today, he saw that the hotel was unable to check in for guests due to the Microsoft blue screen incident. He has already issued a ticket at Singapore airport and hopes to board smoothly.
Bruce Zhang, founder of cybersecurity business research and analysis firm Siyuan, stated in an interview with First Financial News that CrowStrike is one of the top security companies in the United States, but it still has such a large-scale impact. To some extent, this is a security incident caused by the supply chain. For security construction, it is not only necessary to do a good job, but also to do a good job in supply chain security management.
He also told First Financial reporters that this incident means that the terminal is a weak link in security protection that cannot be ignored. Whether it is the escalation crisis or the frequent outbreaks of extortion, many of them start from the terminal. Moreover, the terminal affects every user and often causes significant social impact.