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According to CCTV News, starting at 19:00 GMT on the 18th (03:00 Beijing time on the 19th), Microsoft Windows systems in many parts of the world crashed due to a security software update, resulting in a "blue screen", affecting multiple industries such as aviation, medical care, media, finance, retail, and logistics. Microsoft said that the "blue screen" originated from a security software launched by a Microsoft Windows user from the Crowdstrike cybersecurity service company.

A young man in Shanghai in front of a Windows computer with a blue screen on July 19, 2024. Visual China Image

According to the British newspaper The Guardian, due to the "blue screen" incident, Microsoft computers in airports, gas stations, supermarkets, banks and other institutions across Australia have experienced serious technical failures, and the Australian government has held an emergency meeting to deal with the failure. Australian Home Affairs Minister O'Neill said on the 21st that at a meeting held by the federal and state governments and the private sector, Crowdstrike had informed them that it would soon launch an automatic fix through an update, which would accelerate the system's full recovery to normal.

The Payment Choice Alliance (PCA), a non-profit advocacy organization in the UK, has been opposed to the development of a cashless society. The organization said that downtime incidents always happen, and if there is no alternative, everything will fall apart. The chaos caused by the Microsoft blue screen incident highlights the risks of moving towards a cashless society. And the organization also believes that using cash can be anonymous and can circumvent data privacy issues. The UK Treasury said that cash "definitely still has a place", it depends on the business, and it is a good thing for people to have a choice.

Several smaller outages in the UK have affected retailers earlier this year. In March, McDonald's, Tesco and Sainsbury's experienced problems with their payment systems, but all outlets were able to accept cash payments.