When Beyonce said “I stop the world, world stop” I’m not sure she was expecting Microsoft to take it so literally.

Over 8.5 million Windows devices were shut down last Friday after an IT outage. Even the screens in the iconic Times Square were down. It didn’t take long for Microsoft to identify the problem.

CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that Microsoft uses said the outage was caused by a defect in an update to its cybersecurity defence software for Windows hosts.

When the update ran, it caused the “blue screen of death” to pop up on millions of devices globally, leading to thousands of cancelled flights and hundreds of thousands of stranded passengers. 

Hospitals, media outlets and dozens of businesses were also hit hard. 

Microsoft did release a recovery tool over the weekend to help repair Windows machines hit by the glitch.  But experts are warning that it could take weeks for global tech infrastructure to fully recover.

The stock prices for Microsoft and CrowdStrike, which trade on the NASDAQ have also taken a hit.

CrowdStrike stock dropped 12% on Friday and was down 27% for the week. That almost completely erases its growth for 2024. CrowdStrike shares had risen 34% since the start of the year, to close on Thursday, July 18 at $343.05 US. The outage was on Friday.

Meanwhile, Microsoft shares are down three percent, which could be worse, but I think the company is trying to avoid attention right now so this is the last thing they need. 

Microsoft recently gave up its OpenAI board seat because regulators are cracking down on anticompetition and antitrust violations. But when a mishap with one company causes the majority of your network to go down and that in turn affects millions of people globally, I’m sure regulators have their eyebrows up.

And that’s the bottom line.