Microsoft tech outage stalls key systems across globe

Computers around the world went down on Friday, crippling transportation, health care, financial services, offices, newsrooms and live broadcasts as the world confronted what was arguably the most staggering cyber collapse to have ever occurred, leading to what may be hundreds of billions of dollars in losses.

From Nairobi to New Delhi and from Alaska to Adelaide, the impact was seen in snaking queues at airports and train stations, and on digital billboards that displayed the grimly named “blue screen of death”, an error message that Microsoft Windows-equipped computers display when a system crashes.