Microsoft investigates new outages after global CrowdStrike debacle

Microsoft said Tuesday that is probing outages impacting its 365 office applications and services after the global CrowdStike chaos earlier this month.

The tech giant said some of its 365 services are experiencing problems that are keeping customers from using the cloud-based apps, which include Word, PowerPoint and Outlook.

“We’re currently investigating access issues and degraded performance with multiple Microsoft 365 services and features,” Microsoft said in a post on X. “More information can be found under MO842351 in the admin center.”

The outage appeared to be impacting all of Microsoft’s regions worldwide, the firm said.

Reports of outages with Microsoft 365 programs rose sharply on DownDetector on Tuesday morning, with users reporting problems with Outlook and other apps. 

Shares of Microsoft, which reports after the bell Tuesday, were down more than 1%.

Last week’s CrowdStrike debacle impacted almost every major business sector from airports and healthcare to retail and banks.

The faulty update not only threw surgeries and businesses into turmoil but also summer vacations, with airlines grounding flights and angry travelers camping out in airports across the globe.

CrowdStrike shares plunged more than 8% on Tuesday after a report Delta Air Lines will seek compensation from the cybersecurity firm over the global IT outage that crippled industries including airlines.

The cyber outage led to more than 2,200 flight cancellations on July 19 and Delta has canceled over 6,000 flights so far since then.

CrowdStrike’s “Falcon Sensor” software had caused Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known informally as the “Blue Screen of Death.”

Delta has hired a law firm and will also seek compensation from Microsoft, CNBC reported on Monday.

CrowdStrike’s stock, which had more than doubled in 2023, has fallen over 24% since the outage, leading to a loss of over $20 billion in market valuation.

Many clients are considering slowing or pausing spending on CrowdStrike and expecting pricing concession, according to a survey by Evercore ISI.

“Nearly everyone agreed that they expect some form of monetary relief, such as discounts, service revenue credits, or free products,” the brokerage said in a note on Tuesday, adding that feedbacks from clients suggest that CrowdStrike was already discussing this with its customers.

Analysts at Needham said damages from the outage will lead to “hindered customer willingness to rely heavily on singular platforms, as that choice introduces concentration risk.”

The brokerage said that CrowdStrike customers it spoke to displayed frustration over the outage, depicting it as a “total nightmare” disrupting their business during one of the year’s busiest travel and shopping periods.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz issued a public apology for causing the crisis.

“We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this,” Kurtz had said.

With Post wires