Microsoft's global outage hampers Paris Olympics 2024 preparations. Say what!
What's the story
The preparations for the Paris Olympics 2024 have been significantly disrupted due to a worldwide Microsoft outage.
The technical glitch, which has occurred just a week before the games's opening ceremony, has caused global chaos, grounding flights in India and US, derailing television broadcasts in the UK, and impacting telecommunications in Australia.
"Paris 2024 is aware of global technical issues affecting Microsoft software. These issues are impacting Paris 2024's IT operations," stated the organizers.
Action
Technical teams mobilized to mitigate impact
In response to the global technical issues, the Paris 2024's technical teams have been fully mobilized.
Organizers have revealed that teams are working tirelessly to mitigate the impacts of these issues and have activated contingency plans to continue operations.
The outage is affecting the accreditation system, preventing some individuals from picking up their badges before next Friday's ceremony on the River Seine.
Impact
Arrival of athletes may also get affected
The global Microsoft outage could potentially affect the arrival of athletes for the Paris Olympics 2024.
This comes after flights were cancelled following the welcoming of the first guests at the athletes' Olympic village on Thursday.
The disruption has also affected operations at various international locations, including London Stock Exchange, airports in Spain, Netherlands and Hong Kong, and Tesla's plant outside Berlin.
Aviation
Outage affects major carriers and airports globally
Major airlines in India, including Akasa, IndiGo, Air India, Vistara, and SpiceJet have also been affected by the Microsoft outage.
In the US, low-cost airlines like Frontier Airlines, Allegiant, and SunCountry have reported service disruptions.
Several airports around the world including Delhi, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid, and London were also impacted by the outage.
Delhi airport confirmed that some services were temporarily affected due to this global IT issue.
Finance
Banking sector disrupted by global issue
Australian banks, including the Commonwealth Bank, Australia's biggest bank, experienced disruptions as their computer systems became inaccessible due to the Microsoft outage.
This has affected customers' ability to transfer funds.
Reports also suggest that some banks in New Zealand and South Africa's largest bank, Capitec, were similarly affected by the outage.
The UK's largest rail franchise has reported "widespread IT issues" due to the Microsoft outage, warning of possible cancellations.
Root cause
Double whammy of technical glitches causes global disruption
A couple of technical glitches have led to the significant disruptions impacting various sectors globally.
Firstly, a faulty update by cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike has caused Windows PCs and servers to enter a recovery boot loop. Because of this, user are facing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issue and are unable to start their systems.
Secondly, Microsoft's suite of 365 apps and services suffered a "service degradation" earlier today. Per the company, the "underlying cause has been fixed."
Twitter Post
Microsoft has also shared a guide to fix BSOD issue
(Cont...) To fix this, users may restore their Windows 365 Cloud PC to a known good state prior to the release of the update (July 19, 2024) as documented here:
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 19, 2024
Enterprise - https://t.co/uMhgKSTlb0
Business - https://t.co/UnsNVOHBM3