Microsoft reveal the CrowdStrike outage which paralysed the world affected 8.5million of their devices as experts warn disruption to systems will continue into next week sparking more fears of train, plane and NHS chaos

The CrowdStrike outage which disrupted industries across countries worldwide, affected 8.5million Windows devices, Microsoft has confirmed.

Flights were grounded, GP surgeries disrupted and news channels taken off air on Friday after a faulty software update by the cybersecurity company caused blue screens to appear on computers across the globe.

While the issue of the Falcon Content update has now been fixed, the impact was still being felt in the UK on Saturday, with thousands of passengers still left stranded as a result of the major outage.

In a statement this afternoon, Microsoft said it estimated the error had affected at least 8.5million machines or one per cent of Windows computers worldwide.

But the tech giant acknowledged the ‘broad economic and societal’ impact of the outage, worsened by the number of enterprises running critical services and infrastructure which rely on CrowdStrike.

Passengers at Stansted Airport are left in chaos and without flight information following the worldwide IT failure 

Millions of users and businesses worldwide were faced with the ‘blue screen of death’ on Friday as systems were crippled by the outage

Railway services still faced disruption in the UK on Saturday. Pictured: A South Western Railway ticket machine put out of action due to the outage

Sky News temporarily went off air on Friday morning due to the outage, with viewers faced with this message apologising for ‘the interruption to this broadcast’

Microsoft said that it estimated 8.5million Windows devices had been affected by the outage (file photo)

Microsoft insisted that while software updates can cause disturbances, major crashes on this scale are ‘infrequent’.

In a statement on Saturday afternoon, Microsoft said: ‘We recognise the disruption this problem has caused for businesses and in the daily routines of many individuals. Our focus is providing customers with technical guidance and support to safely bring disrupted systems back online.

‘We’re working around the clock and providing ongoing updates and support. Additionally, CrowdStrike has helped us develop a scalable solution that will help Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure accelerate a fix for CrowdStrike’s faulty update’

What has been dubbed ‘the worst IT outage the world has ever seen’ also affected shops, banks and even football teams, which were left unable to sell tickets online.

On Friday, UK Government officials convened an emergency COBRA meeting amid the crisis, after major disruption was reported at several major travel hubs.

Heathrow, Gatwick and Edinburgh airports all suffered disruption in what was estimated to be the busiest day for air travel since before the Covid pandemic as families hoped to jet off on well-earned holidays.

Instead many spent the night on the floor of airport concourses as flights were grounded and airports were left with no option but to revert to manual check in procedures and paper tickets.

A large blue screen is shown at Madrid Barajas airport in Spain, as the major IT outage saw flights thrown into chaos worldwide

Passengers face huge queues at Madrid’s Barajas airport as the global outage disrupted check in systems in the terminal

Some Waitrose stores were forced to revert to cash only operations as cashless services on self checkouts were disabled by the crash

A ticket machine at King’s Cross Station in central London that was left out of service following the huge IT outage 

NHS services relying on online-stored patient data including GP surgeries and prescriptions were also affected by the IT outage

In a statement, CrowdStrike said it was ‘working with all impacted customers’ to get systems up and running again

Other major international airports worldwide, including Amsterdam Schiphol and Dubai International, were thrown into chaos as departure screens switched off. 

The outage, which has also been branded a ‘digital pandemic’, has reignited a debate over the increasing reliance on cashless transactions.

Several major UK supermarkets including Waitrose were forced to resort to ‘cash-only’ operations in some stores, as self checkout systems went down.

Other stores, including Gail’s, Morrison’s and B&Q were unable to process contactless payments on Friday.

One of the country’s largest broadcasters, Sky News, went off air on Friday morning, leaving viewers faced with a message apologising for an interruption in transmission.

CBBC was also taken off air following the outage, with TV viewers informed ‘something’s gone wrong’.

In sport, Manchester United warned that fans would experience delays getting matchday tickets after the failure affected its systems, while the Mercedes F1 team said it was working to rectify issues ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

BBC channel CBBC was taken off air due to the IT failure, as TV viewers were told ‘something’s gone wrong’

Departure screens show dozens of delayed flights at New York’s Newark Liberty airport

Huge crowds at Singapore’s Changi airport as communications are crippled due to the IT outage

Passengers left on the floor at Gatwick airport as several flights are either delayed or cancelled

Technology experts have compared the scale of the disruption to the that expected from Y2K or the ‘Millennium Bug’ – a computer programming shortcut that was forecast to cause chaos at the turn of the millennium in 2000 but never materialised.  

‘This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time’, security consultant Troy Hunt wrote on X.

Cyber security company CrowdStrike has admitted to being responsible for the error that hit Microsoft 365 apps and operating systems and said a ‘fix has been deployed’. 

The American firm said it was caused by a ‘defect found in a single content update’ and insisted the issue ‘was not a security incident or cyberattack’. 

In a statement the company said: ‘We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.’