Microsoft Outage Status: Previously Impacted Microsoft 365 Apps, Services Recovered

New Delhi: After a worldwide outage as computers running Microsoft Windows hit with a wave of ‘blue screen of death’ errors, the Microsoft 365 Status informed that the mitigation actions have been completed. After hours of efforts, Microsoft’s telemetry reportedly indicated that all previously impacted Microsoft 365 Apps and services have been recovered. Further work is in progress and the process is being monitored to ensure the impact on computers is fully resolved.

On Friday, a worldwide outage affected personal computers, airlines, media companies, banks, and telecom firms around the world after computers running Microsoft Windows were hit with a wave of ‘blue screen of death’ errors, triggering one of the most widespread IT disruptions in recent memory.

Progress is Being Monitored To Ensure Impact Is Fully Resolved

In a post on the official X handle, Microsoft 365 Status, posted, “We've completed our mitigation actions and our telemetry indicates all previously impacted Microsoft 365 apps and services have recovered. We're entering a period of monitoring to ensure the impact is fully resolved.”

Earlier in the day, as the outage hit the world, the major culprit appeared to be a faulty update to cybersecurity software from CrowdStrike. Industries from aviation to finance were severely impacted. Various airlines across the world faced significant delays and disruptions, while banks, retailers, and news organizations also reported outages. The travel sector, in particular, seemed to be bearing the brunt of the problem.

Microsoft, in a post after the outage, posted on its' Service Health Status' update page, saying that the issue was largely resolved and only residual impact remains. Though the page continued to say "Service Degradation" on top for the Microsoft 365 suite of apps.

Computers Running Microsoft Windows Hit With ‘Blue Screen Of Death’ Error

On Friday, in one of the most widespread IT disruptions in history, the global CrowdStrike-Microsoft outage causing ‘Blue Screen of Death’ error messages severely affected financial markets, including banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), disrupting trading activities and transactions.

Public transport systems, aviation operations, corporate enterprises, media broadcasting, and the hospitality industry have also been hit hard, experiencing widespread service interruptions and operational chaos, raising several questions, about whether it was a cyberattack.

What Caused Global Outage?

The IT chaos, which was triggered on Friday morning, began when a faulty update was pushed out from CrowdStrike. Following the worldwide outage, President and CEO George Kurtz, in a Friday post on X, cited a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts” — noting that Mac and Linux hosts were not impacted. But, because scores of companies rely on CrowdStrike for their security needs with Windows as their operating system, the consequences of this kind of technical problem are far-reaching.

DownDectector, which tracks user-reported disruptions to internet services, recorded that airlines, payment platforms and online shopping websites across the world were affected — although the disruption appeared piecemeal and was apparently related to whether the companies used Microsoft cloud-based services. Still, experts stress that Friday’s disruptions underscore the vulnerability of worldwide dependence on software that comes from only a handful of providers.

“This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core internet infrastructure,” said Ciaran Martin, a professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and former Head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre.