The owner of a consumer insights research firm was unable to pay his employees, sign new business contracts by a Friday deadline and send crucial research results to key clients.
A psychiatrist who runs a virtual mental health clinic in Maryland is finding his work disrupted because some of his virtual assistants and therapists can’t make calls or log on to their computers.
A New York City restaurant owner worried about how to pay his vendors and employees.
A global internet outage forced many businesses, large and small, to suspend operations on Friday. AP
Companies from airlines to hospitals were grappling with a glitch in a software update that caused technical disruptions around the world on Friday and whose effects continued into the weekend. The widespread outage highlighted the fragility of a digitalized world that relies on a small number of providers for key computing services.
But the issue seems to divide those affected into the “haves” and “have-nots.” While major Microsoft and CrowdStrike customers have received IT support to resolve the issues, many small and medium-sized businesses with Windows PCs that may have received the problematic update are still struggling.
Take Tsvetta Kaleynska, owner and founder of RILA Global Consulting, a Manhattan-based consumer insights firm with Fortune 500 clients.
As of Saturday, she had resolved the pay issue and had her research project extended until Monday. But the potential client did not move forward with the new contract, and she estimates her annual income will be reduced by nearly 25%. The problem was, she was unable to sign the contract because Docusign, which runs on Microsoft software affected by the buggy update, was down.
“If I worked for a large company, I could delegate tasks or get support from computer science or security services,” Kalińska says, “but as a small business owner, I have to rely on myself, which is pretty dire.”
In addition to business issues, Kalyenska had to take her sick daughter to a local hospital on Friday because the hospital’s phone lines were down.
Despite the initial repairs, some computers may require additional days of manual maintenance.
Kalyenska, an immigrant from Bulgaria who received U.S. citizenship in 2023, said she learned a hard lesson: “Our lives are based on technology, and we depend on technology, so we are very vulnerable.”
CrowdStrike is one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the United States, with a client list that includes more than half of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as small and medium-sized businesses.
The company has issued an initial fix through a software update since the outage occurred, but many computers are expected to require hands-on work that could take days, or possibly longer, to complete.
Dan Ives, a technology analyst at Wedbush, said for many affected small businesses, it could mean working around the clock this weekend to make sure their systems are up and running.
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“Small businesses rely on third parties to make sure this doesn’t happen, and it’s become a ‘code red’ situation,” Ives said.
Ives noted that overall, it is easier for larger companies that employ a significant number of experts to solve technical problems than for smaller companies that may face an “uphill battle” due to fewer technical resources.
“The effects of this will likely be felt for days and weeks to come,” Ives said. “This is a black mark not just on CrowdStrike, but on the entire industry. We cannot allow a global ecosystem to collapse over one update.”
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike pushed out a flawed software update that caused a global outage. AP
Ari Lightman, a professor of digital media at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, agreed, noting that the money big companies spend on Microsoft and CrowdStrike is likely a big chunk of their IT budgets. Smaller businesses, meanwhile, can look online for solutions to the outages. CrowdStrike has posted step-by-step manual fixes on its blog, but those who aren’t tech-savvy may find them unsettling.
Reitman said those companies could sue for business losses, while smaller businesses could file a class action lawsuit to seek damages from CrowdStrike.
This issue is affecting small businesses in a variety of ways.
The outages have been “somewhat haphazard and inconsistent depending on how companies are using specific Microsoft tools,” said Heather Garlich, a spokeswoman for FMI, a grocery trade group in Arlington, Virginia. Garlich said she is aware of some companies that had problems with their human resources systems, others with delivery routing systems. Another company had problems with its cash registers.
Chris Seabrook, owner of Asguard Locksmith, a locksmith service in Melbourne, Australia, told The Associated Press in an email on Friday that the IT outage had caused a “major disruption” to his day-to-day operations, meaning he couldn’t send or receive email, access important files, manage his schedule or create invoices.
“My Microsoft PCs are essential to many key functions of my business,” he wrote. “As I run a one-person business, every minute counts and this disruption has forced me to act quickly to ensure as little interruption of service as possible.”
The blackout affected a wide range of industries, including shipping, aviation and hospitals. AP
To minimize disruption, Seabrook borrowed a non-Microsoft device from a friend so he could sign in to his account and access some of his important tools and information.
He also uses his smartphone to send important messages, manage his schedule and contact clients to update them on their status. Seabrook did not immediately respond to a follow-up email sent by The Associated Press on Saturday.
Some small business owners are improvising to get the job done.
Dr. Ozan Toy, a psychiatrist and chief medical officer of Maryland-based Telepsychiatry, which has 25 employees across the U.S., said some employees using Microsoft phone lines have switched to the Ring Central system, while others have switched from Microsoft Teams to Zoom.
Toy said his company was fortunate to have multiple backups of its electronic medical record systems, which allowed staff to resume communication with each other and patients.
The clinic’s cloud-based services were up and running as of Sunday, he said. Toy noted that financial losses were “minimal” because the clinic has an outside answering service that takes patient calls.
Chris Delmond, co-owner of Handcrafted Hospitality, which operates three restaurants in Manhattan and one in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, said his company’s restaurants are staying open.
But the outage meant people couldn’t access their cloud-based accounting software apps on Microsoft’s platform, meaning they couldn’t view receipts or invoices, and it took longer to process checks for employees and suppliers. They had to call their banks to check if deposits had been made or to confirm their balances.
“I’m a small business owner, I have two other partners, we do everything,” he said. “So it’s up to us to figure out what the problem is. There’s no big platform that can help us track it down.”
But by late Friday afternoon, Delmond said all issues related to his company’s cloud-based systems had returned to normal. He noted that he had not suffered any financial loss, but added, “It’s frustrating, but as a small business owner, you have to deal with the ups and downs.”
