Global IT Outage Linked to CrowdStrike Update Affects Multiple Sectors

Major IT Outage Linked to CrowdStrike Update

A significant global IT outage, triggered by an update from the security software provider CrowdStrike, is expected to be resolved by Friday night U.S. Eastern Time, if not sooner, according to predictions from Polymarket bettors. CrowdStrike is known for its software that safeguards computers and networks against cyber threats.

This outage has affected various sectors worldwide, including banks, airlines, emergency services, and numerous businesses. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) even issued ground-stop orders for most major airlines due to the widespread disruption.

Bettors on the market are projecting an 89% likelihood that the issue will be resolved by Friday evening, with a 70% chance of a fix being implemented by Friday noon. Additionally, there is skepticism regarding the potential of this outage being the result of a hacking attempt, as the market assigns only a 9% probability to that scenario.

There is also an 81% chance that American Airlines will resume operations by Friday noon. In the financial markets, CrowdStrike’s stock has seen a decline of over 10% in pre-market trading on the NASDAQ exchange.

The company’s CEO provided updates at 5:45 PM Hong Kong time (which corresponds to Friday morning in the U.S.), stating that the issue has been identified and isolated, with a solution being rolled out shortly.

Interestingly, Bitcoin seems to be largely unaffected by this incident, trading above $63,700 and down by 1.7%, according to CoinDesk Indices data. In a lighter vein, meme coin traders have taken to the situation with humor, as various CrowdStrike and Windows Blue Screen of Death-themed meme coins have emerged on the Solana blockchain.