Reports from prominent international media outlets including CNN and BBC have confirmed a widespread IT outage impacting numerous global institutions, including major banks, airlines and other technology-based organisations.
The US state of Alaska earlier warned that its emergency services are affected, and there are reports of the London Stock Exchange being impacted as well.
Australia has been particularly hard hit, with flights grounded, supermarkets experiencing checkout chaos, and broadcast networks scrambling on air as autocue, graphics, and computers failed.
The cause of the outage remains unclear, but many affected organizations have linked it to Microsoft PC operating systems.
An official Microsoft 365 service update posted on X earlier in the day stated, “We’re investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.”
However, a Microsoft spokesperson mentioned that “the majority of services were recovered earlier” in the day.
A spokesperson for Australia’s Home Affairs Minister indicated that the outage appears to be related to an issue at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, and the country’s cybersecurity watchdog confirmed there is no information to suggest it was an attack.
“Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies,” they said in a statement.
Reuters has cited sources saying the London Stock Exchange has suffered an outage, while Alaskan officials said many 911 and non-emergency call centres are not working properly.
Meanwhile at Sydney Airport, information disappeared from departure boards. In an announcement to passengers in the domestic terminal, budget carrier Jetstar said that an “issue with Microsoft” meant it was unable to check in passengers, or to board its flights.
Virgin Australia also told its travellers there was a “complete ground stop” of flights.
Social media users have reported queues at stores like Woolworths, with payment systems downed.
Australian outage website Downdetector shows issues being reported by the National Australia Bank, telecom firm Telstra, Google and more.