Microsoft Outage: IT Ministry issues advisory, says problem related to recent update in product

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) on Friday issued advisory after system at several global and Indian airlines, banks and other institutions faced sharp disruptions owing to an outage caused in Microsoft products.

"It has been reported that Windows hosts related to Crowd strike agent Falcon Sensor, are facing outages and getting crashed due to recent update received in the product. The concerned Windows hosts are experiencing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), related to Falcon Sensor. The issues occurred in the latest update of CrowdStrike and the changes have been reverted by the CrowdStrike Team," the ministry agency said in its advisory.

Electronics & Information Technology Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) said, "MEITY is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage. The reason for this outage has been identified and updates have been released to resolve the issue. CERT is issuing a technical advisory. NIC network is not affected."

Crowdstrike-Microsoft outage issue

Microsoft users globally, including many in India, have reported massive service outages. Outage tracking website Downdetector has shown disruptions across various Microsoft services. The cloud outage led to US airlines canceling flights, though Microsoft later announced that the issue in the Central US region has been resolved.

An X user posted a screenshot of an alert from the company Crowdstrike that said the company was aware of "reports of crashes on Windows hosts" related to its Falcon Sensor platform. The alert was posted on a password-protected Crowdstrike site and could not be verified by agencies.

A new update from cybersecurity software firm Crowdstrike is being cited as the cause of the outage, affecting Windows-based desktops and laptops.

Microsoft, Crowdstrike, and Windows are trending on X (formerly Twitter). Users on Downdetector reported problems across Microsoft's lineup, including Azure and Teams.