A global internet outage is affecting airlines, banks, media worldwide

Thousands of Windows machines are experiencing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issue at boot today, impacting banks, airlines, TV broadcasters, supermarkets, and many more businesses worldwide, the Verge reports. 

A faulty update from cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike is knocking affected PCs and servers offline, forcing them into a recovery boot loop so machines can’t start properly. CrowdStrike is widely used by many businesses worldwide for managing the security of Windows PCs and servers, the report adds.

All flights from several major US airlines – including Delta, United and American Airlines – were grounded Friday morning due to a communication issue, CNN reports citing the Federal Aviation Administration.

Flights were suspended at Berlin Brandenburg airport in Germany on Friday morning due to a "technical problem", a spokeswoman told AFP, adding there are delays to check-in, and flight operations had to be cancelled until 10:00 am local time.

A large-scale outage also wrought havoc on IT systems across Australia on Friday, with the country's national broadcaster, its largest international airport, and a major telecommunications company reporting issues, Barron’s reports.

The UK's biggest rail operator also warned of possible train cancellations due to IT issues on Friday morning. UK broadcaster Sky News was unable to broadcast its morning news bulletins, but later went back on air.

The disruption came as US tech giant Microsoft said it was taking "mitigation actions" after service issues.