Updated at 11:45am Eastern
BOCA RATON, FLA. — From airline travel to operations at multiple broadcast television stations, normal course-of-business activities came to a screeching halt early Friday (7/19) due to cloud-based software outages linked to a Crowdstrike software glitch.
As such, all systems using Microsoft 365 apps have been crippled, leading to global disruptions being felt in many parts of North America.
The issues began in the mid-morning hours in Europe, and media reports stress that it is not a cyberattack.
The impact on broadcast media has thus far been minimal, with CBS Boston among the Paramount Global-owned TV stations offering continuous coverage, including via X (formerly Twitter) and via online services. CNN in the 7am hour confirmed that the issues are primarily those of cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, taking pressure off of Microsoft even as a pre-market sell-off was seen — for those able to access ways to put in a sell order for “MSFT.” Shares quickly recovered as Friday’s trading session began.
CNN said that Crowdstrike confirmed the outage is “not a security incident,” nor a cyberattack.
In the 5am hour, WKMG-6, the CBS affiliate in Orlando, posted on X that station operations were being impacted by the “global Microsoft outage.” The station’s website was being updated.
Meanwhile, Hearst-owned WJCL-22 in Savannah, Ga., an ABC affiliate, explained in a post on X what Crowdstrike is, and what to do in the event a viewer’s flight was cancelled.
But it was NBC News that snagged the exclusive interview with Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz, who apologized for the snafu. Savannah Guthrie was in Milwaukee covering the Republican National Convention, while Hoda Kotb was in New York at TODAY studios. Guthrie asked if it was a single content update that shut down credit card systems, banks, broadcasts, street lights and even 911 emergency services. “Why is there not some kind of redundancy or some sort of backup?” Guthrie asked Kurtz. “Why is that one software bug can have that kind of profound and immediate impact?”
Kurtz replied, “When you look at the complexity of cybersecurity, you always try to stay one step ahead of the adversary.” Noting that he’d been up most of the night, impacting his voice, sharing that Crowdstrike has “a robust team” that’s working diligently to resolve the matter.
Meanwhile, in Boston, WBZ-4 co-anchor Anna Meiler was reporting that Mass General Brigham is cancelling all previously scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures and medical visits due to the worldwide software outage.
Kotb noted that Australian broadcasters and hospitals were also impacted in the NBC News interview with Kurtz. “How long does it take to get everything back up and running?” she asked the Crowdstrike head. He noted that system reboots are in progress, but did not give any time frame with respect to a full recovery for its customers.
By 8:53am Eastern, TODAY was outside of its studios at the Citi Concert Series stage to welcome Ryan Tedder and OneRepublic as they performed “Counting Stars,” bringing back a sense of normalcy on a morning of communications breakdowns.
Two hours earlier, “some technical issues” were hampering Sinclair Inc.-owned WPEC-12 in West Palm Beach, with its 6am newscast going live with limited abilities, including the loss of chyron technology. At Hearst Television-owned WPBF-25 in West Palm Beach, no chyron or intro with music was seen at the start of its morning news, which begins at 4:30am. A monitor seen on-camera displayed one computer displaying the blue error screen indicating it had been impacted by the bug.
For The E.W. Scripps Co.‘s WPTV-5, systems were impacted as well, station anchors noted to start their 6am broadcast, also without chyron. A reporter was able to deliver a live report from Palm Beach International Airport, an indication that limited systems were being impacted and not preventing WPTV, WPBF or WPEC from going on the air.
Spanish-language television was not as impacted, as Miami-based WLTV-23 and WSCV-51, the Univision and Telemundo stations, were delivering newscasts normally.
The outage also impacted WFLX-29, the Gray Television-owned station that sees its newscasts delivered by WPTV, as local news began at 7am Eastern.
AUDACY IMPACTED BY CROWDSTRIKE GLITCH
As of 10am Eastern, radio broadcasting companies appeared to be largely unfazed by the computer glitch, with Townsquare Media CEO Bill Wilson confirming to RBR+TVBR that the company is not impacted by the Crowdstrike bug. An iHeartMedia spokesperson also confirmed to RBR+TVBR that its stations were not affected.
Cumulus has had no operational impact, too, a company spokesperson shared just before Noon Eastern.
However, Audacy Inc. stations were impacted.
“Like many companies around the world, we did experience issues as a result of today’s outages,” a company representative said. “All of our stations were back up and running by 8am Eastern.”
The Audacy representative declined to elaborate when asked by RBR+TVBR if some stations were completely off the air or if certain elements including CBS News Radio updates were prevented from reaching the company’s all-News stations.
Audacy, then known as Entercom Communications, suffered a September 2019 company-wide ransomware attack.
