Microsoft Server Down: How did the world come to a standstill due to the outage? When will the services be restored? Understand everything in 10 points.

Posted on 20th Jul 2024 by rohit kumar

Due to the problem with the Microsoft server, the work of many big companies around the world was badly affected. Computer systems of airlines, financial companies, airlines, banks, and other emergency services were shut down.

 

Passengers had to face a lot of problems due to the disruption of hundreds of flights in various cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Bangalore. At the same time, the work of broker agencies related to the stock market was also affected, due to which problems arose in stock trading.

 

Why did the problem occur in the Microsoft server?

 

Due to this outage, computers running on Microsoft's operating system (Microsoft outage) are restarting automatically. This problem is commonly known as Blue Screen of Death, which is seen due to a bug in the operating system. According to tech experts, the Blue Screen of Death problem has come due to the 'Crowdstrike' update.

 

Crowdstrike is a cyber security platform that provides cloud server security solutions to companies. Global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike recently rolled out an update, after which users are facing problems in using various Microsoft 365 apps and other services.

 

What was the impact of the outage on India?

 

About 200 flights of Indigo Airlines were affected the most by the outage. Airline companies said that booking, checking, and issuing boarding passes were affected. Airlines like SpiceJet, Akasa Air, and Vistara also faced challenges at the technical level, which affected the work and all work had to be done manually.

 

Handwritten boarding passes were issued.

 

IndiGo staff at Hyderabad airport have issued handwritten boarding passes for Tatkal flights. At the same time, handwritten boarding passes were issued to passengers at Bhubaneswar airport. The Reserve Bank issued a statement saying that the large-scale glitch in Microsoft services has affected all sectors related to information technology.

 

Impact on media organizations

The outage caused the live telecast of news outlets ABC and Sky News in Australia to stop.

 

What did the Microsoft CEO say about the outage?

 

Company CEO Satya Nadella said that CrowdStrike had released an update, which started affecting IT systems around the world.

 

He further said that we are well aware of this problem globally and are providing technical support to CrowdStrike to bring their systems back online safely.

 

Elon Musk took a dig.

 

On one hand, work came to a standstill around the world due to the outage. At the same time, the owner of social media handle X and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, took a dig at this incident. Sharing a meme on his social media handle, he wrote, "Everything else is down, this app (X) still works. Apart from this, he has also retweeted an old tweet. In this, he has compared Microsoft to Macrohard.

 

Microsoft users' headaches increased.

Microsoft users were most affected due to the outage. Users had trouble accessing files on OneDrive and OneNote. At the same time, users also faced problems in accessing email through Outlook. Users had trouble using the Xbox app as well as Microsoft Purview and Viva Engage.

 

When will the services be restored?

 

Microsoft informed that the company is aware of the problem and is engaged in solving it on a war footing. Microsoft has engaged several teams to find a solution to the problem. The good thing is that the company has found out the reason for the problem and has also restored some services.

 

Airline services around the world are affected.

In America, the services of various airlines including major airlines like United, American, Delta, and Allegiant have been disrupted. More than 1,100 flights were canceled and more than 1,700 were delayed. In Britain, airlines as well as rail services were affected. In Germany, flights were halted for several hours due to check-in difficulties at Brandenburg Airport.

 

Landings of planes had to be postponed at Zurich Airport and flights were also disrupted in Hungary, Italy, Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Turkey. The impact of this outage was seen in Australia.

 

What did the Government of India say?

 

Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said, "His ministry (MeitY) is in constant touch with Microsoft. Also, CERT-In is coordinating with Cisco (a global technology company) to secure very important bodies. The fault has been identified and its solution is being found. All the affected companies are upgrading their systems and in many cases, the system has been improved."

 

Vaishnav clarified that there was no impact on India's National Informatics System (NIC).