On Friday, Microsoft faced a widespread global outrage, leading to disruptions across multiple services and leading users experiencing the notorious “Blue Screen of Death”.
What does it mean?
The Blue Screen of Death, or BSOD, is a critical error screen on Windows PCs that stops all operations and displays an error message. This occurs when the system encounters a severe issue, often leading to a potential data loss and an unexpected restart.
Impact:
Microsoft’s outrage had a calamitous global impact, toppling operations in various sectors and platforms like Microsoft 365, Azure, Amazon Web Services, as well as social media sites like Instagram and eBay. Sectors from supermarkets experiencing payment processing issues to broadcasting channels like Sky News experiencing difficulties to go live. The issue has also grounded flights from airlines including Delta, United and American Airlines in the U.S., as well as IndiGo in India.
On Saturday, Microsoft claimed that this affected over 8.5 million Windows devices, a little less than 1% of all Windows machines. While the percentage was small, the domino effect was disastous across the globe.
What actually happened?
This IT breakdown was primarily related to Crowdstrike, a well-known cybersecurity firm, and its Falcon Sensor software is designed to protect systems from cyberattacks.
On Thursday, Crowdstrike warned global users about a bug linked to the Falcon Sensor that was causing Windows systems to crash with BSOD errors. Despite rolling back the update, many machines unfortunately remained affected.
“Symptoms include hosts experiencing a bugcheck\blue screen error related to the Falcon Sensor. Our Engineering teams are actively working to resolve this issue and there is no need to open a support ticket.” Crowdstrike wrote.
Debate on technological dependence?
The Chief Justice of India, highlighted some of the drawbacks of technological dependence and cited Microsoft’s outrage of July 19th as a prime example, with his own flight from Delhi to Madurai being nearly cancelled.
“I am an ardent believer of the benefits of technology and yesterday we saw the adverse effects of technological dependence. After the Microsoft outage, flights all across the country were cancelled,” he said.
A touch of humor:
On a more lighthearted note, the global outrage has also sparked a flood of online memes and jokes trying to make light of the situation and celebrating Friday as the “Happy International Blue Screen Day”. Here are some social media favorites:
Microsoft employees and Other IT employees after the Microsoft outrage. pic.twitter.com/82Ptgfkg1z
— Sai Teja (@csaitheja) July 19, 2024
#Microsoft
Linux users watching windows users enjoying outrage: pic.twitter.com/QIaPHIktyj— Abdullah (@abdul_tweets03) July 19, 2024
Me showing up to work and my company hasn’t been affected by the Microsoft outrage pic.twitter.com/NJ0ooOBxn5
— W.E.B. DaBoi (@Tyre_94) July 19, 2024
Everyone in the world right now after windows outrage#Microsoft #Windows #crowdstrike pic.twitter.com/qPhbbjX4Z9
— Amit Kumar (@Amit_Kumarr1) July 19, 2024
The global Microsoft outrage not impacting my laptop pic.twitter.com/9HuV5ohhu5
— Fiona Small (@FionaSmall) July 19, 2024
everything else is down, this app still works 🚬 pic.twitter.com/3plqy5VkbS
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) July 19, 2024
Today’s news about the Microsoft outrage apparently caused by Crowdstrike, reminded me of this meme. pic.twitter.com/wPgblCdypI
— Rebeca Saraí G. G. (@Rebecasarai_) July 19, 2024
That one guy after destroying Microsoft globally #Microsoft pic.twitter.com/XYDiJk1IvH
— Vivek Gautam (@Imvivek04) July 19, 2024
Microsoft Windows users right now. #crowdstrike #bsod pic.twitter.com/l153GL0xwU
— Tommy (@tferris) July 19, 2024
The real story behind Windows outage 🤣#Crowdstrike pic.twitter.com/ceb7v6nqxL
— It’s FOSS (@itsfoss2) July 19, 2024
The Microsoft / CrowdStrike outage has taken down most airports in India. I got my first hand-written boarding pass today 😅 pic.twitter.com/xsdnq1Pgjr
— Akshay Kothari (@akothari) July 19, 2024
