Data Analytics Insights on Microsoft/CrowdStrike IT Outage
The Microsoft/CrowdStrike IT outage of July 19th, 2024 might go down as one of the biggest crisis spillovers in recent history. From thousands of affected fliers to issues with 911 lines, people across the world got a hard look at its technical systems. To make sense of how this issue led to more issues that affect more than just CrowdStrike and Microsoft, we first have to take a look at crisis spillover.
Crisis Spillovers and their Impact
Communication professionals and researchers perceive crisis spillovers as one of the most complicated, or sticky, situations to navigate. Essentially, a crisis spillover describes an incident wherein an crisis-of-origin organization (like CrowdStrike) deals with an issue (like an IT outage) and other, affected organizations (say, airlines like American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, etc.) feel the impact of the crisis due to a variety of factors (e.g., their relationship to the crisis-of-origin organization, proximity, partnerships, etc.).
One of the most unique aspects of a crisis spillover lies in appropriately communicating the issue to stakeholders – how do you, as an affected organization, explain the incident, effectively communicating sometimes very complicated terminology to various stakeholder groups that want to know (1) what happened, (2) what you, the affected organization did and (3) when the issue will be resolved?
A dive into the conversations happening on and around the Microsoft/CrowdStrike IT outage sheds some light on why brands – both directly and indirectly affected by the crisis – need to pay attention to traditional media coverage and social media conversations.
The Crisis for CrowdStrike and Microsoft
The sphere of impact for Microsoft and CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike received over 2.1 million mentions between July 19 – 21, 2024. For context, CrowdStrike received 11K mentions on July 18th and 1.34M mentions on July 19th – an increase of 11,748%. Microsoft mentions followed the same pattern, though not reaching the same height as the CrowdStrike peak on July 19. What is noteworthy, however, is the downward trends following the incident day: CrowdStrike declined faster than Microsoft, speaking to the impact a household name has on mindsets.
Dealing with prevailing negative opinions… “the blue screen of death.” One of the strongest stories coming out of the crisis highlighted Microsoft’s “blue screen of death” (BSOD) and the theme went viral on social media. While typically used colloquially between Microsoft users, variations of the phrase garnered over 309,000 mentions, spiking at 234K on July 19th. “Blue Screen” was featured roughly 1,210 times in traditional news headlines, being used to describe the incident,“Blue Screen of Death–Microsoft Says Turn if Off and On Again and Again and Again.” The BSOD shorthand received 149,000 mentions, with 87% of them happening on July 19th. On X, #bluescreen went viral with over 38,000 uses in the six day time frame.
Both traditional outlets and social users leveraged “blue screen of death” without providing much context, implying potentially deeper, reputational issues for Microsoft.
Delaying software updates framed as a boon. Unsurprisingly, the general sentiment around software updates trended against Microsoft and Crowdstrike. However, social users in particular noted how Southwest, a major airline, avoided the outage issues because it has continued using an old version of Windows. Some outlets also framed Southwest as lucky (e.g., “Windows version from 1992 is saving Southwest’s butt right now”), suggesting that new technology does not match the infrastructure of “ancient technology.” On a smaller scale, the outage prompted some users to say “SEE? THIS IS WHY I NEVER UPDATE MY OS.”
Organizations – even those not affected by Microsoft/CrowdStrike – should expect that customers may express hesitations, concerns, and overall resistant behavior toward updating operating systems.
Contending with misinformation. When the incident happened, questions of a cyber attack emerged, with roughly 20% (430K mentions) wondering if the issue might be a cyber attack. While CrowdStrike put out a statement saying the incident was not the result of an attack, the hashtag #cyberattack generated 364K mentions. Indeed, questions like “is this a cyber attack” swirled–with some outlets going so far as to state that the incident was not caused by terrorists or artificial intelligence. Separate from the question “is this a cyber attack”, some social conversation even alleged that the Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage might be connected to “theft of the 2024 election.”
The Crisis Spillover Ripple Effect
Consumer impact drowning out broader impacts of the outage. Despite affecting more than just the airline industry, most of the social chatter referenced the impact the outage has on American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines. Similar to Microsoft, airlines Delta, American, and United saw a surge in mentions on July 19th. Did these companies cause the outage? No, but their relationships with Microsoft (i.e., using Microsoft’s technology) led to big consumer issues, namely grounded and delayed flights and long lines at airport help desks. Fliers shared images on social media of the lines for the help desks, featuring customers wrapped around the airport. On X, airlines took heat for the outage– social users commented on organizational social posts, explaining their unique situations and demanding help.
Connecting crisis impacts to broader, social concerns. A sub-conversation leveraged the viral @flightradar24 time lapse of decreasing plane traffic and took on a new life; some social users argued that the Earth’s climate benefited from the decrease in global travel. This unique call out, connecting grounded flights from an IT issue to broader climate concerns, demonstrates why organizations need to stay in touch with conversations. Depending on the continued impact and the overall solution, airline organizations might be faced with responding to these tangential issues that stem from the broader Microsoft/CrowdStrike IT outage crisis.
Questions for brands to ask themselves as the Microsoft/Crowdstrike IT outage winds down:
- What is your organization’s “blue screen of death”? Are you prepared to confront it?
- What social conversations and concerns might arise following a crisis with your company?
- What is your misinformation strategy?
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