What charities need to know about the Microsoft outages

Pilots, train drivers, GPs, and news reporters are among the millions of people in Britain and across the world who have found themselves unable to work as normal on 19 July 2024, as Microsoft reports worldwide outages affecting their IT systems. 

 

Sky News, as well as many other broadcasters, found themselves off air in the morning due to the fault, and several airlines and airports report disruption. Train operators TransPennine Express and Govia Thameslink Railway – which owns Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express, and Great Northern – have warned of delays due to the outage. 

 

The NHS said most GP surgeries and pharmacies in England have experienced issues, leaving them unable to access patient records, book appointments, or fulfil prescriptions.

 

 

What exactly happened? 

 

The Microsoft outage appears to stem from a defect in a software update provided by cyber security company CrowdStrike. As of 10:50am, George Kurtz, chief executive of CrowdStrike,

that the issue “has been identified, isolated, and 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.” 

 

The issue appears to have arisen at around 11pm (BST) on the night of Thursday 18 July. Reports suggest that millions of computers were hit with the “blue screen of death” (BSOD), which typically indicates that a system has crashed or can no longer function safely.

 

While services have been considerably disrupted, Microsoft expect that users will gradually see relief as “we continue to mitigate the issue”. Microsoft have pointed to services that may still be affected, including PowerBI, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft 365 admin center.

 

 

The impact on charities 

 

While the impact on charities remains unclear, the outage seems to be mainly affecting large organisations globally – typically organisations with complex IT infrastructure – with a live map from internet monitoring company Thousand Eyes showing outages have been reported on all continents. 

 

Charities will be understandably concerned about the outage, which has disrupted vital services in the UK. While digital technology is essential to help charities reach more people and deliver more impact, it is not infallible and organisations must have a continuity plan in the event that it fails. The current situation is not thought to be caused by a security issue or cyber attack, but it demonstrates the disruption that such an incident can cause. 

 

Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor at Sky News, explains: “The mass global IT chaos – impacting a swathe of sectors from airlines and GP surgeries to news organisations and banks – shows the vulnerability of daily life to technology when it fails. 

 

“It means the way of life in people in nations, across continents and around the globe can be brought to a halt – or at the very least inconvenienced – by a single faulty piece of software.” 

 

 

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