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The cause of the outage is unclear, but many of those impacted have linked it to Microsoft PC operating systems.
Major global institutions have reported suffering a mass IT outage that has crippled operations and impacted customers.
The institutions include international airlines, major banks, media outlets and hospitals.
Some states in the US Friday said emergency services were affected, while several of the country’s airlines have grounded their flights around the world.
Reports said Australia, which has been particularly hard hit, has recorded broadcast networks scrambling on air as systems failed and supermarkets crippled.
Although it is now back on air—with a slate apologising for an “interruption to this broadcast”— Sky News went completely off air as a result of the issues.
International airlines: Grounded flights worldwide, with some airports experiencing disruptions in services.
Banks: Disruptions in services, with some customers unable to transfer money.
Media outlets: Severe disruptions in broadcasts, with some going off-air.
Hospitals: Appointment systems and patient records were affected, leading to the suspension of non-urgent surgeries and medical visits.
Government services: Some internal systems were affected, but emergency services were operating normally.
Supermarkets: Payment systems were down, leading to chaos in checkout lines.
Telecoms: Some customers reported issues accessing financial institutions.
The cause of the outage has been linked to a defect in a software update by cyber security firm CrowdStrike, which affected machines running on Microsoft Windows.
“We are investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services,” an official Microsoft 365 service update posted to X earlier in the day said. But a Microsoft spokesperson told the BBC on Friday that “the majority of services were recovered” hours earlier.
Social media users earlier reported queues at Australian stores like Woolworths, with payment systems downed. Other customers also had trouble accessing financial institutions like the National Australia Bank.