US issues warning on Microsoft outage, Nadella says working to bring systems back online

US cybersecurity agency CISA has warned that hackers are trying to take advantage of Microsoft outage for phishing and other malicious activity, as the tech giant's Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said they are working hard to safely bring systems back online globally. The US cybersecurity agency warned individuals to “avoid clicking on phishing emails or suspicious links,” which can lead to email compromise and other scams.

“Threat actors continue to use the widespread IT outage for phishing and other malicious activity. CISA urges organisations to ensure they have robust cybersecurity measures to protect their users, assets, and data against this activity,” it said in a statement.

The outage has impacted Windows 10 and later systems, and is due to the “CrowdStrike Falcon content update and not to malicious cyber activity”.

Nadella said in a post on X that “We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online.”

A fresh Microsoft statement read that they are actively supporting customers to assist in their recovery.

According to CrowdStrike, the issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.