A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
American Airlines, United and Delta have all grounded flights over a technology outage that has taken services offline around the world. Companies, banks, hospitals and emergency services have also been disrupted as there is a race to fix the issues behind it. For more, we're joined by NPR's Bobby Allyn. Now, Bobby, so what happened?
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Yeah. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which is used by major parts of the global economy, had a software update go awry. Many users online reported that the company was going through the routine process of a software update, and it crashed many servers. We're talking thousands of servers.
It appears to be affecting computer systems supported by Microsoft Windows and systems that use Microsoft's Cloud Computing services. Many online were sharing error messages of what's known as BSOD, which stands for Blue Screen of Death, containing the message, it looks like Windows didn't load correctly. In other words, your IT Department's worst nightmare, A, right?
Now, things should be turning around now. CrowdStrike's CEO says it was a bug, not a cyberattack, and that it sent out a fix, but thousands of companies are still reeling.
MARTÍNEZ: So, just to be clear, a bug, not a cyberattack - because that would be a big difference, Bobby, between the two.
ALLYN: Yes.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, we mentioned that this glitch - this computer glitch left travelers stranded at airports all around. I mean, how else was this outage felt around the world?
ALLYN: Yeah, you know, cybersecurity experts are saying the scale of this disruption is really astounding. I mean, hospitals in England had to delay appointments because they couldn't access computer systems. In Alaska, 911 phone lines were disrupted. Several banks reported issues. Merchants around the world couldn't process payments. We saw TV broadcasters in France and Australia say they had to drop live broadcasts. They were totally knocked offline.
And, of course, chaos at airports from India to the U.S. - my colleague Brian Mann had his flight canceled in Burlington, Vt., and spoke to another traveler at the airport. Britty Daniels is her name. She was hoping to get to North Carolina today but was told...
BRITTY DANIELS: Just that there's a nationwide outage with Microsoft and has something to do with their security system - we're just here waiting in the airport with three small kids.
ALLYN: And, you know, she is far from alone, A. According to FlightAware, at least 1,000 flights around the world have been canceled because of this tech meltdown.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, I guess better than when the plane's in the air, right? - I'd rather have this happen...
ALLYN: Yeah, really.
MARTÍNEZ: ...When I'm on the ground. And, you know - but here's the thing. I mean, service outages seem pretty common. Why was this one in particular so widespread?
ALLYN: Yeah, it's because cybersecurity company CrowdStrike is just used by so many industries around the world. It might not be a household name to some, but for major swaths of the global economy, it is hugely important. It has, you know, some 20,000 customers, and they tend to be large corporations in travel, health care, financial services, and it's used by governments, too, as a way safeguarding cyberattacks.
And, you know, this fiasco, A, I think, really showcased just how dependent the entire global economy is sometimes on individual software companies. And when something goes wrong, well, those systems around the world become very fragile.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. That's NPR's Bobby Allyn. Bobby, thanks.
ALLYN: Thanks, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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