That one update from a single provider could plunge so many companies—from airlines’ check-in desks to consultants’ conference rooms—into a digital dark age serves as a stark warning of the economy’s technological dependence, and the dangers of too much consolidation around the same tools.

Tech issues

CrowdStrike Chief Executive George Kurtz said in a post on X that the issue had been identified and a fix had been deployed, adding that “this is not a security incident or cyberattack.”

One of CrowdStrike’s main services is called Falcon, which monitors a company’s machines for hacking attempts, viruses and other threats.

The Austin, Texas-based company told customers in a status update seen by The Wall Street Journal that the problem was with a software change it had pushed via Falcon out to clients’ computers. The company said its engineers had undone the change but clients would need to use a workaround to download a fix to affected computers.

Some affected users may be back up and running soon, but for others it could take weeks depending on the system in use, said Simo Kohonen, founder of Finland-based network security company Defused. …

Multiple financial institutions, media outlets, government entities and corporations reported crashes or blue-screen errors that appeared related to the CrowdStrike outage. …

In the U.S., many 911 and nonemergency call centers weren’t working properly, according to the Alaska State Troopers. In New York City, some screens showing subway arrival times weren’t working. At least some of the car inspection system in North Carolina was offline.

Travel snarls

As of 8 a.m. Friday morning, nearly 2,700 flights had been canceled, including more than 1,000 flights in the U.S. alone, according to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company. More than 21,000 flights around the world were delayed by midmorning Friday, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. …

Several major U.S. airlines, including American, Delta and United, said they were starting to resume some flights Friday morning. But some cautioned many travelers would experience disruptions Friday. Delta had initially paused flights because the outage had affected back end systems that ensure planes are safely dispatched, a person familiar with the matter said. …

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(Excerpt from The Wall Street Journal. Photo Credit: Grj23 – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11146794)