THE SUN
AN ABUNDANCE of blue screens, supermarket chaos and aviation anarchy are being seen across the globe after a major tech outage.
Microsoft systems were brought to a standstill with a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike believed to be the culprit, forcing a stop to services around the word.
Microsoft Windows users were met with this screen on Friday, including supermarket checkout screens
One man posted a handwritten boarding pass
With Microsoft down, TV stations including Sky News suffered setbacks
Some businesses were forced to shut up shop
A viral photo posted to X by traveller Akshay Kothari shows a handwritten boarding pass.
Alongside the image, he wrote: “The Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage has taken down most airports in India. I got my first hand-written boarding pass today.”
Cyber security researcher Troy Hunt said: “I don’t think it’s too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history.”
He called the blue screen the “blue screen of death”.
According to founder of cyber research company Imperum Senad Aruc, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport was “frozen” amid a doomsday.
He wrote on X: “Looks like Crowdstrike Doom’s Day it is real, many airline companies having issues with their systems.”
X user Jasper Hamill said it was a reminder of the fragility of the tech-reliant world, suggesting a collapse could send humans back to the dark age.
He said: “I fear one day historians will talk about the Silicon Age Collapse – and we’ll leave no stone tablets/easily readable records to tell the tale.”
