A technological meltdown disrupted airlines, banks, hospitals and emergency services on Friday.
Thousands of Microsoft users reported being suddenly knocked offline, and the culprit appeared to be cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which had a routine software update malfunction.
“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” the company said in a statement. Customers using Mac and Linux operating systems were not affected, according to CrowdStrike.
When the botched update crashed computer systems, scores of airport travelers were stranded, hospital appointments were delayed and live news broadcasts were cut short.
CrowdStrike said it was not a cyberattack, but rather a software glitch.
In some states, including Alaska and Ohio, 911 phone lines were down.