'Working Closely': Satya Nadella's 1st Reaction on Microsoft Outage

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella released his first response on the global outage sparked by a faulty update from American cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike 

"We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online," Nadella assured in a statement.

The worldwide disruptions 

The incident, which erupted on Friday, disrupted operations across multiple sectors including airlines, banks, TV channels, and other businesses reliant on Windows systems. The root cause was traced to a flawed update deployed by CrowdStrike on their Falcon Sensor, designed to safeguard Windows environments.

CrowdStrike's CEO George Kurtz swiftly acknowledged the issue and conveyed that the fault had been identified and rectified. "We have isolated the issue and implemented a fix," Kurtz confirmed via social media platform X.

The faulty update, which notably did not impact Mac or Linux systems, went live at 1900 GMT on Thursday, Microsoft disclosed. By Friday morning, numerous companies reported operational disruptions due to the malfunctioning update.

The ramifications were profound globally, grounding major US carriers including Delta, United, and American Airlines due to severe communication issues. Air France also grappled with IT disruptions, though operations at key Paris airports remained intact.

In India, the fallout was equally severe, with airline check-in systems crashing and causing extensive flight delays and cancellations. IndiGo alone axed approximately 200 flights, prompting airports to resort to manual bookings, check-ins, and boarding procedures to manage the chaos.

While the financial and payment systems in India remained largely unscathed, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) noted minor disruptions at about 10 banks and NBFCs, swiftly resolved to minimize impact.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu assured the public that both his ministry and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) were employing manual processes to mitigate disruptions and facilitate the gradual restoration of normalcy in air travel.