Sudden Shutdowns of Windows Computers Worldwide: Major Outage and Its Effects

A Major Outage Worldwide: Windows Computers Suddenly Shut Down

Television channels, airports, and banks around the world are facing a major outage that has caused computers running the Windows operating system to suddenly shut down. A program that was supposed to be broadcast live on Sky News on Friday morning was not aired due to an unexpected outage, and instead, old archive footage was shown. This situation caused great confusion among viewers.

A website that monitors outages, Downdetector, reported a sudden increase in issues across many platforms including Microsoft applications, banking websites, and airline apps. Many airlines warned their passengers to arrive at airports early, stating that the disruptions on their websites were due to third-party IT issues affecting their entire network.

Cybersecurity researcher Troy Hunt shared on the X platform that individuals worldwide were experiencing sudden “blue screen” errors on their Windows computers, entering recovery mode, and stated, “Something very strange is happening right now.”

Possible Cause

Experts suggest that a possible source of this widespread issue could be an antivirus software. It is claimed that recent updates to some popular antivirus programs have shown incompatibility with Windows’ core components, leading to system crashes. Cybersecurity engineers pointed to Crowdstrike as the antivirus software causing these crashes. Senad Arun, founder of the cybersecurity research company Imperum, described the situation as “Crowdstrike Doomsday.” Crowdstrike stated on its website, “Crowdstrike is aware of crash reports on Windows related to the Falcon Sensor.”

Turkish Airlines Made a Statement

Turkish Airlines (THY) Press Consultant Yahya Üstün announced on social media that there were disruptions in ticketing and reservation processes due to issues in information systems. He emphasized that necessary work was being done to resolve the issue and that precautions were taken to avoid inconveniencing passengers. Üstün stated that they would provide detailed information on the matter as soon as possible.

“Our operations are gradually returning to normal.”

In a second statement, THY Press Consultant Üstün said, “Dear passengers, it has been determined that a software-related problem has affected many companies from various sectors, including aviation, worldwide. Necessary actions are being taken to resolve this issue in our partially affected operations. Our operations are gradually returning to normal. We apologize to our valued guests for the inconvenience caused.”

Denizbank Also Made a Statement

In a statement from Denizbank, it was said, “Dear Customers, due to a technical malfunction of the global software system we use, outages are occurring in many institutions in our country as well. Our bank is working to resolve this issue and to restore all our channels to service as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding.”