The “blue screen freeze” problem affects computers that run the Microsoft Windows operating system. One of the most extensive IT outages of late is caused by this kind of malfunction. It seems that a defective update for mass strike on cybersecurity software is to be blamed. Multiple industries, from aviation to banking, were hit hard. There were severe delays and disruptions for airlines, as well as banks, retailers and news organizations reporting service interruptions.
No update has been released by Microsoft on this incident. A post on its Service Health Update page says that the situation has been largely resolved with only residual effects remaining. However, still at the top of the page it reads “Service Downgrade” over the whole suite of Microsoft 365 Apps.
“Current situation” according to microsoft
“The root cause of the issue has been resolved and multiple Microsoft 365 apps and services have returned to full functionality Residual impact is still affecting some Microsoft 365 apps and services, and Microsoft 365 engineers are continuing to implement additional mitigations to provide relief We will Continue to observe increased functionality and availability for the remaining affected scenarios and monitor this situation closely to ensure this continues to treat this incident with the highest priority.”
Accordingly, per information given on their website, it started around 9:56 PM UTC ON July 18th, 2024 which was Thursday.
As per initial root cause by microsoft
“Configuration changes as part of our Azure backend workloads caused disruptions between storage and compute resources, resulting in connectivity failures that impacted downstream Microsoft 365 services that relied on those connections,” added the company.