The widespread Microsoft outage that impacted businesses around the world and caused airline disruptions on Friday morning is believed to have been caused by a software update conducted by Austin-based cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
The company’s CEO, George Kurtz, issued a statement to X, formerly Twitter, saying that the company has identified the issue and deployed a fix. Kurtz said the outage was not a cyberattack or security incident.
"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. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” Kurtz wrote. “We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they're communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."
The outage has affected flights, media companies, banks and other businesses worldwide.
CrowdStrike mainly investigates major hacks and provides cybersecurity software to companies globally; several are Fortune 500 companies.
CrowdStrike is best known for investigating hacked Democratic National Committee computers during the U.S. election in 2016.
As news of the outage spread, the company's stock fell by 12.81% in pre-market stocks as of Friday morning.