Cape Town – Windows and Microsoft users across the world were met with the “blue screen of death” on Friday, 19 July, when the service was hit by a massive outage.
Several news outlets were reporting that the outage, ostensibly caused by a glitch in security software, had delayed airport operations.
Locally, Capitec bank reported that it was experiencing service issues, most probably as a result of the outage.
Due to an unexpected issue with an international service provider, we are currently experiencing nationwide service disruptions.
Note: Card payments & Capitec ATMs are working & your account remains secure.
We’re resolving the matter asap. We apologise for the inconvenience. pic.twitter.com/u8rfg2rIyT— Capitec (@CapitecBankSA) July 19, 2024
Downdetector.co.za noted a surge in complaints related to Capitec services between 6am and 9am on Friday, with 80% of complaints related to mobile banking.
Capitec was trending on social media today with many users complaining about the outage.
#capitec is helping ya’ll save this weekend… The bank can see you overspending on weekends pic.twitter.com/I49lrINNr6
— A M O 🇿🇦 💭 (@Only_Botake) July 19, 2024
MyBroadband reported that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange had issued a statement that its FTSE indices were not updating.
“Clients are advised that we are aware of the FTSE issue globally and are awaiting resolution. Clients are advised to trade with caution,” the JSE said.
It was being widely reported that a glitch in security software used by Microsoft, CrowdStrike, was at the root of the outage.
The Guardian reported that Crowdstrike had since posted a notice that the outage was linked to “content deployment”, which had since been reverted, and that it had advised a workaround solution for those affected.
Broadcasters across the world, such as SkyNews in the UK, and ABC in Australia, were also affected by the outage.
News24 reported that the Microsoft services affected included Azure Cloud, Microsoft Teams and other Microsoft 365 services. It quoted Bloomberg saying Microsoft had resolved the issue by this morning.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: X/@Andy_Park
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by African Insider
