The “Blue Screen of Death,” a term used to describe a major Microsoft malfunction, has caused widespread operational issues affecting the London Stock Exchange (LSE), banks, airlines, and airports during peak tourist season.
The problems began at 5:30 GMT with an alert from CrowdStrike to its clients, warning that the company’s “Falcon Sensor” software was causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display the infamous “Blue Screen of Death.” The alert included a manual fix for the issue, according to Reuters.
The LSE website has issued a warning stating that the RNS news service is experiencing a global third-party technical issue preventing news publication. “Technical teams are working to restore the service, with no impact on the trading of securities or other services on the London Stock Exchange.” Meanwhile, Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME), the operator of Spanish financial markets, and the regulator CNMV have confirmed that they are unaffected by the Microsoft issue, as reported by Economía Digital.
According to EFE, Downdetector, a website monitoring service outages, has noted sudden spikes in incidents affecting various banking websites using Microsoft applications since last night. Banks such as Santander España, Kutxabank, Unicaja, and Ibercaja are experiencing issues, according to capital.es.
Travel Industry Challenges
The travel sector is one of the hardest hit, with airports worldwide facing operational disruptions. Major US airlines, including Delta, United, and American Airlines, grounded all flights due to the Microsoft outage, as reported by EFE. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed the incident, affecting all domestic flights regardless of their destination. Airports in Tokyo, Amsterdam, Berlin, and several in Spain have also reported system problems and delays.
The organizing committee of the Paris Olympics announced on Friday that its IT operations were impacted by a global cyber outage just a week before the event’s start. “We have activated contingency plans to continue our operations,” the committee stated, according to Reuters.
Stock Market Reactions
Companies facing technical issues saw their stock prices decline. In Spain, financial sector stocks fell between 1.19% for Santander and 0.3% for Unicaja. In Europe, Société Générale and BNP Paribas dropped by 1.3%, while Deutsche Bank in Germany fell by 2%.
Affected by the LSE disruption, Deutsche Boerse, the operator of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, saw a 0.95% decline, and Euronext, which owns the Paris and Milan exchanges, among others, fell by 1.25%.
Tech stocks also had a rough day. CrowdStrike’s shares plummeted by 9% in early Wall Street trading, while Microsoft remained almost flat compared to the previous day’s closing price.