CrowdStrike-related outage affects 8.5 million Microsoft devices

A global tech outage related to a software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike affected nearly 8.5 million Microsoft devices, according to a blog post by Microsoft on Saturday.

"We currently estimate that CrowdStrike's update affected 8.5 million Windows devices, or less than one percent of all Windows machines," Microsoft stated.

The software update by CrowdStrike, a leading global cybersecurity firm, triggered system problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off the air, and left customers without access to critical services such as healthcare and banking.

"While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services," Microsoft said in its blog post.

"While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services," Microsoft said.

CrowdStrike has collaborated with Microsoft to develop a solution that will expedite a fix for Microsoft's Azure infrastructure. Microsoft also noted that it is working with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, sharing information about the effects observed across the industry.

The air travel industry was recovering on Saturday from the outage, which caused thousands of flights to be cancelled, leaving passengers stranded or facing long delays. Delta Air Lines, one of the hardest-hit carriers, reported that more than 600 flights had been cancelled as of 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on Saturday, with additional cancellations expected.