Banks, airlines and media outlets hit by global outage linked to Windows PCs

Widespread outage linked to Windows workstations has affected major companies, including Sky News UK, Melbourne Airport and Thameslink

Businesses including banks, airlines, telecommunications companies, TV and radio broadcasters, and supermarkets have been taken offline after blue screen of death error screens were seen on Windows workstations across the globe.

Users on the subreddit for cyber security firm Crowdstrike reported issues in India, the United States and New Zealand.

Sky News in the United Kingdom reported being off air on Friday morning, with Sky News sports presenter Jacquie Beltrao posting on X: “We’re obviously not on air – we’re trying.”

Melbourne airport advised customers it was “experiencing a global technology issue which is impacting check-in procedures for some airlines”, and advised passengers to “allow a little extra time to check-in”.

A major UK train company warned passengers to expect disruption as it was suffering “widespread IT issues”. All four of Govia Thameslink Railway’s brands – Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern – posted on social media: “We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network.

“Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem. “We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks.

“Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected.

“We will provide additional updates when we can. In the meantime, please regularly check your journey before you travel.”

Users in Australia began reporting issues early on Friday afternoon AEST, stating they’d been locked out of their workstations, while Australian banking apps and supermarket systems were also affected.

Australian broadcasters the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Sky News confirmed they were having broadcast difficulties as a result.

An email sent to staff at Australia’s national broadcaster, seen by Guardian Australia, said Windows terminals across the country are experiencing blue screens of death, causing issues with some TV studios and radio studios.

Crowdstrike has reported blue screens of death being observed in multiple locations and say the cause is currently under investigation. The company has said the issue is related to its Falcon Sensor product, and engineering teams are working to resolve the issue, according to a support notice.

The company later posted that engineers had identified the issue as a content deployment problem and had reverted the changes.

Australia’s national cyber security coordinator, Lt Gen Michelle McGuinness, confirmed government advice suggested it was a third-party software issue.

“I am aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across Australia this afternoon,” she posted on X.

“Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies.”

The Guardian has contacted Crowdstrike and Microsoft.

Microsoft on Friday reported users may not be able to access its 365 cloud-based app services. It was a rough day for the tech giant with a cloud outage grounding airlines in the United States earlier in the day in what is believed to be an unrelated issue.