Microsoft's 'Screen of Death' error chokes global services: What's impacted

Tech giant Microsoft on Friday reported a major glitch in its cloud services, causing a global outage that impacted various sectors, including airlines, banks, and stock exchanges.

Millions of Microsoft users around the world reported seeing the ‘Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)’ error on their devices, which is causing the system to suddenly shut down or restart. Microsoft provides the Windows line of operating systems, a software platform that manages computer hardware and software.

What is the Blue Screen of Death on Windows?

In a blog post, Microsoft explains that the Blue Screen error or also called the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error can cause issues with the Windows system, causing it to shut down or restart unexpectedly. According to the IT major, the shutdown takes place to prevent damage to the computer.

Which companies have been affected by Microsoft Blue Screen error?

Flights at Indian airports were affected due the glitch as a result of the disruption to the check-in systems. Passengers of IndiGo, Akasa, and SpiceJet experienced delays and inconvenience as airlines resorted to manual check-in processes.

In its latest post on X (formerly Twitter), Microsoft stated, “Multiple services are continuing to see improvements in availability as our mitigation actions progress.” It had earlier acknowledged the issue on X, noting that its Microsoft 365 apps and services were impacted.

An update blog attached to the thread said that the outage was first detected on Thursday, July 18, 2024, at 9.56 pm Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). India functions five and a half hours ahead of the UTC.

London Stock Exchange services hit by Microsoft outage 

The outage also affected brokerage firms such as 5paisa and IIFL Securities. Some reports said that the London Stock Exchange services were also impacted.

“Due to a global outage with Crowdstrike/ Microsoft, offering a cybersecurity solution, our systems are affected. Our team is working closely with both of them to restore our systems as soon as possible,” 5paisa said in a post on X.

The cause of the outage was not immediately clear.

According to Downdetector, a platform that tracks internet-related outages, users reported issues with services like Visa, ADT Security, and Amazon. Outages were also reported for Indian banks, including Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and the State Bank of India since 10 am. However, it was not immediately clear if these outages were related to the Microsoft glitch.

Media houses such as ABC and Sky News also faced sudden shutdowns and were unable to broadcast on their TV and radio channels.

In its blog post, Microsoft said the disruptions were reported on services such as PowerBI, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 admin centre, Microsoft Purview.