Microsoft bug causes flight suspensions and downtime of key infrastructure worldwide

A bug hit Microsoft's infrastructure on Friday. Said bug caused severe malfunctions in the operation of all of the big tech's digital services that resulted in dozens of canceled flights in the United States and the downtime of Microsoft's digital infrastructure worldwide. 

Windows computers reportedly won't boot and, according to unconfirmed reports, the problem lies in software from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. There are problems in payment systems and in platforms for working with Teams or Microsoft 365. 

The U.S. tech giant reported late Thursday that customers in the Midwest could experience problems with various Azure services and its Microsoft 365 suite of applications. This could include "failures with service management operations and connectivity or availability of services."

Digital services outage detection platform DownDetector reported a high spike in service outages for the brand's services throughout Thursday night into Friday.

The company assured this Friday that services were correctly restored. However, DownDetector continues to report crashes.

Frontier Airlines cancels all flights 

None of Frontier Airlines aircraft took off between Thursday and Friday due to the Microsoft computer glitch. The airline informed its customers that its "systems are currently affected by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies. During this time, booking, check-in, access to your boarding pass and some flights may be affected."

It wasn't the only company affected. Low-cost carriers Allegiant Air and Sun Country Airlines also saw their operations severely affected by the system crash. 

CrowdStrike says it has identified the problem

The problem that caused a worldwide computer failure on Friday and disruptions at numerous companies has been "identified" and is being fixed, announced the head of CrowdStrike, a U.S. cybersecurity firm.

"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers affected by a defect found in a Windows user content update (...) this is not a security incident or a cyber attack. The issue was identified, isolated and a fix has been applied," George Kurtz wrote on social networks X and LinkedIn.

France and Germany rule out computer attack

The French cybersecurity agency, the Anssi also announced that there is no evidence that the computer glitch affecting airlines, banks, media and companies around the world is due to a "cyber-attack."

"Teams are fully mobilized to identify and support the affected entities in France and to understand (...) the origin" of this IT failure, France's national cybersecurity agency said. "There is no evidence to suggest that this outage is due to a cyberattack," it added ne statements picked up by AFP.