Windows users around the world are reporting that their computers are showing the operating system’s Blue Screen of Death, with no apparent reason or way to prevent going into the error loop.<\/p>\n
The issue has affected airports, television news stations, financial institutions, emergency services and many other industries and companies globally \u2014 including the London Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange issued a notice<\/a> on Friday morning notifying clients that the FTSE indices are not updating.<\/p>\n “Clients are advised that we are aware the FTSE issue globally and are awaiting resolution. Clients are advised to trade with caution,” it said.<\/p>\n Further reports indicate that Sky News in the UK, and ABC in Australia have been impacted, interrupting broadcasts or causing equipment like autocues to malfunction.<\/p>\n In South Africa, people are reporting<\/a> that at least one major insurer has been affected.<\/p>\n Some have reported servers showing the dreaded error messages, while others report that all laptops in a company are bluescreening.<\/p>\n Initial reports indicated that a recent update from cybersecurity platform provider Crowdstrike might be the cause.<\/p>\n Feedback<\/a> from Crowdstrike appears to confirm that a “content deployment” is responsible for the widespread problems Windows users are experiencing.<\/p>\n The company’s engineering team has issued a workaround for system administrators to recover affected systems.<\/p>\n