Elon Musk Mocks Microsoft for Major Outage Causing Global Disruption

Elon Musk has taken a cheeky jab at Microsoft after a significant outage threw businesses and institutions worldwide into disarray.

What Happened With Microsoft?

The trouble started at 6pm ET yesterday (July 18) when Windows workstations went offline, impacting a range of sectors from banks and supermarkets to airlines and rail services. The chaos has been linked to a software update issued by the security firm Crowdstrike just hours before.

In a statement, Crowdstrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, clarified that the outage wasn’t due to a security incident or cyberattack.

Photo: Foxbusiness.com

“Crowdstrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” he explained. “Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed.”

Crowdstrike directed customers to its support portal for the latest updates and assured ongoing communication through official channels. “Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers,” they added.

Meanwhile, Microsoft acknowledged the problem affecting Windows devices was due to an update from a third-party software platform. “We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming,” they stated.

While Crowdstrike worked to resolve the issue, Musk seized the opportunity to poke fun at Microsoft, recalling a past criticism from 2021. Back then, Musk tweeted on X: “Macrohard >> Microsoft.”

Although he later admitted that Microsoft Teams was “pretty good,” Musk revisited his earlier jab following the recent outage. He dug out his 2021 post and retweeted it, adding only “…” to suggest that his comment still held true.

Musk’s followers enjoyed the playful dig, with his post garnering over 52,000 likes by the next day (July 19).

Crowdstrike, which bills itself as a “global cybersecurity leader,” collaborates with some of the world’s largest companies to prevent internet breaches and hacks. The outage affected major airlines like Delta, United, and American Airlines, leading to the grounding of all flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. At least 600 flights have already been canceled due to the disruption.

The outage has shone a light on the vulnerabilities of relying heavily on digital infrastructure and the ripple effects that a single software issue can cause across the globe. While Crowdstrike and Microsoft work to rectify the situation, Musk’s quip serves as a reminder of the competitive and often playful nature of tech industry leaders.

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