How Germany is being hit by Microsoft's 'blue death' glitch

An outage of Microsoft operating systems has spread around the world and created disruptions on Friday, related to the Crowdstrike anti-virus software used by many large companies. 

Specifically Microsoft's Azure and 365 services are reported to have been the most impacted.

Companies, banks, stock exchanges, supermarkets and airports around the world are reporting severe technical malfunctions.

The London Stock Exchange, United Airlines, McDonald's and even German news outlet FOCUS have all reportedly been affected by the outage.

Traffic was also suspended at Berlin's BER Airport, though it has since partially resumed.

Passengers at Stuttgart, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Nuremberg also reported delays due to the fault.

Those affected are no longer able to start their computers, seeing only a blue screen. Among Windows users, the screen is often called the "blue screen of death" because it usually indicates a serious system failure.

Temporary closures at German airports

Flights were suspended at Berlin Brandenburg airport in Germany on Friday morning due to a "technical problem", a spokeswoman told AFP as several countries reported massive IT disturbances.

"There are delays to check-in and flight operations had to be cancelled until 10 a.m.," the spokeswoman said.

According to media reports, services at the transport hub have since partially resumed, though continued delays and disruption are expected. 

READ ALSO: What are your rights in Germany if a flight is delayed or cancelled?

According to a spokesperson at Frankfurt Airport, the largest airport in Germany, passengers flying out of Frankfurt have been left relatively unscathed by the issues.

"The Fraport systems at Frankfurt Airport are up and running," a spokesperson for airport operator Fraport told DPA. "It may be that individual airlines are affected. But there are no problems at the moment."

A large-scale outage also wrought havoc on IT systems across Australia on Friday, with the country's national broadcaster, its largest international airport, and a major telecommunications company reporting issues.

The disruption ahead of the first weekend of the school holidays in Berlin came as US tech giant Microsoft said it was taking "mitigation actions" after service issues.

Stuttgart airport has also been affected. At time of writing, the airport's website says that security at Terminals 2 and 3 are closed.

Ryanair, Eurowings, Veuling and Turkish Airlines had also reported disruptions as of 10 a.m. Travellers departing from any German airport may be affected, and are advised to check ahead on the status of their flight and plan to arrive early at the airport.

Ryanair posted on X: "We’re currently experiencing disruption across the network due to a Global 3rd party IT outage which is out of our control. We advise all passengers to arrive at the airport at least 3 hours before their scheduled departure time."

They added that customers who weren't able to check-in online can do so at the airport.

If you're due to travel today and have not already checked-in for your flight, you can do so at the airport. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of this Global 3rd party IT outage.

— Ryanair (@Ryanair) July 19, 2024

What other services are affected?

The University Medical Centre Schleswig-Holstein has cancelled all planned operations at its locations in Kiel and Lübeck on Friday. This was announced by the clinic on its website.

Elsewhere in Europe, there have been reports of passengers unable to buy tickets for local on-the-ground transportation as well.

Supermarkets and banks may also be affected. As of 10:45 a.m., German disruption tracker Alle Störungen was still reporting issues at Commerzbank, Deutsche Bahk, DKB and Sparkasse, among others, as well as issues with payment providers such as Visa and PayPal.

The Munich District Office has also been struck by a network failure: "At present, no specialist procedures can be served," the district office announced. Services are expected to be cancelled there for the duration of Friday.

Additionally, Germany's Interior Ministry confirmed to Tagesspiegel that critical infrastructure - including companies related to energy supply, transport and traffic, public administration, hospitals, drinking water, waste water and telecommunications - have been affected.

Crowdstrike says 'a fix has been deployed'

As of 11:45 a.m., Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz has put out a statement on X confirming that the defect was "not a security incident or cyber attack" and that "a fix has been deployed".

CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…

— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024

Businesses that have been affected by outages are being referred to Crowdstrike's support portal.

Reactions to Kurtz's post are less than forgiving. Many of the top comments point out that the CEO's initial statement is notably missing an admission of fault or an apology.

With reporting by AFP.