This will be the largest IT outage in history, bringing Y2K fears to reality, web-security expert says

• A massive IT outage on Friday caused widespread disruption across different sectors worldwide.
• An expert said the outage, linked to a CrowdStrike update, mirrors Y2K fears that never came true.

In 1999, the specter of Y2K, or the millennium bug, caused mass, worldwide anxiety about the risks of power, air travel, and stock market outages.

Y2K passed with barely a blip, but over two decades later, one web security consultant says those fears have finally been realized, thanks to a massive IT outage on Friday.

"This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it's actually happened this time," Troy Hunt, an Australian web security expert, said in an X post.

In another post, Hunt said, "I don't think it's too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history."

While Y2K did not ultimately cause the widespread chaos that was feared, Friday's outage arguably has.

It has resulted in major disruptions to travel, banks, and supermarkets across the globe, which are still ongoing at the time of writing.

On Friday, Microsoft reported problems with its online services linked to an issue with CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm.

CrowdStrike admitted that one of its updates was behind the outages.

George Kurtz, CrowdStrike's CEO, said the problems were caused by a "defect" in a "content update" for Microsoft Windows.

He added that the issue had been "identified, isolated" and that a fix had been deployed.

As Business Insider's reporting has documented, 911 lines, banks, and broadcasters are among those affected by the outage. Grocery stores, retailers, and fast-food giants have also experienced malfunctions with their in-store cash registers.

And air travel has also been disrupted.

In Singapore, Changi Airport, one of the world's busiest airports, said it was manually checking in passengers of some airlines.

Several UK airports and international airlines have been impacted, with US airlines like Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and American Airlines issuing ground stops on Friday.

The London Stock Exchange Group's Workspace news and data platform was also affected, preventing news from being published on its website.

Malfunctions also hit Norway's central bank.

The latest outage highlights the fragility of the world's IT systems and just how dependent modern society is on them.

In a comment provided to BI, Dan Coatsworth, an investment analyst at AJ Bell, said: "The world grinding to a halt because of a global IT meltdown shows the dark side to technology and that relying on computers doesn't always make life easier."