Microsoft outage affects users worldwide
A host of services including flights, hotels, and offices globally were all affected early on Friday for most Microsoft Windows devices. A number of Indian airlines including Indigo, Akasa Air, Air India Express and Spicejet were all said to be facing technical glitches around booking tickets and web check-in. Sources now say that the issue was likely due to a recent update from U.S. cybersecurity company, CrowdStrike which provides endpoint services for several global organisations.
Users were unable to login to their systems as they crashed reflecting the Blue Screen of Death or BSOD error on all systems. Indigo informed customers that systems “across the network” were affected resulting in “increased wait times at our contact centres and airports”. Akasa Air has issued a similar alert warning that automated options to manage existing bookings were down. Spice Jet has also sent out a warning in the same vein.
Netflix’s subscriber and earnings on rise
Netflix’s subscriber and earnings growth accelerated in its latest quarter as the video streaming service benefits from a crackdown on freeloading viewers, an expansion into advertising and an acclaimed programming lineup. The results announced Thursday painted a portrait of a company still gathering momentum after a jarring decrease in subscribers during the first half of 2022 prompted a change in direction.
Netflix added 8 million subscribers during the April-June period, marking a 37% increase over the same time last year. It was the sixth-consecutive quarter of that Netflix’s subscriber gains have increased from the previous year, a trend triggered by the 2022 downturn that served as a wake-up call for the Los Gatos, California, company. The company’s profit in its latest quarter rose 44% from last year to $2.15 billion, or $4.88 per share. Revenue climbed 17% from last year to $9.56 billion, also eclipsing analysts’ projections.
WazirX hacked
Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX claimed that it was “taking all necessary steps to protect the customer assets,” after a cyber-attack against one of its wallets resulted in the loss of more than $230 million. The wallet in question was operated by five signatories from WazirX and one from the digital asset custody service Liminal. According to the statement provided by WazirX, a difference between the data displayed on Liminal’s interface and the transaction’s actual contents was possibly exploited by the attacker.
“Despite us taking all necessary steps to protect the customer assets, the cyber attackers appear to have possibly breached such security features, and the theft occurred,” said the crypto exchange. WazirX did not go into details about the suspected hackers or any groups/perpetrators that could be behind the incident. The Indian exchange did not explicitly mention which cyber-crime or police departments it was working with in order to trace the attackers.
