Security agent ‘bluescreens’ crucial systems worldwide

An update by a security software provider has caused a cascade of failures taken out airlines, banks and other businesses

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A software update issued by cloud security provider Crowdstrike has knocked-out computers around the world, causing chaos including disruption to travel and financial services.

Failures have been reported by emergency services in parts of the US, the London Stock Exchange, media outlets including Sky News, Airports in the UK, the Netherlands, Japan, India and New Zealand, as well as a number of banks.

Ryanair has asked customers to arrive three hours early for flights. US airlines United, Delta and American Airlines have grounded all flights under a so-called “global ground stop, while British train operators have told commuters to expect delays due to “widespread IT issues”.

Irish rail and bus services have not been affected at the time of writing.

The rolling outage appears to be caused by a software update to Falcon Sensor, an agent that blocks attacks to systems, which is causing Windows systems to display the ‘blue screen of death’.

Posting on social network X, formerly Twitter, Brody Nisbet from CrowdStrike, said the outage was caused by a “faulty channel file” and posted a workaround.

Crowdstrike is in the process of rolling back the update globally.

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