All classes throughout the Texas A&M University System are canceled today after a Windows outage left institutions worldwide powerless. This incident is caused by an error in a recently-released update in CrowdStrike, a software used to detect and stop cyber threats such as data breaches and leaks.

A&M’s CodeMaroon alert notified students of the cancellation at 8:51 a.m.

“Classes are canceled for Friday, July 19; however, all campus locations remain open with operations as planned,” the statement reads. “The New Student Conference at our main campus will remain on-schedule.”

An email sent to A&M’s Technology Services employees details the source of the outage and steps staff have taken to remedy the situation.

“This outage was caused by a faulty update to the application, and causes Windows computers to crash and enter a reboot loop,” the email reads. “This was NOT [sic] caused by a cyberattack, but rather a technical issue with the vendor.”

CrowdStrike software is used globally in multiple Fortune 500 companies and government institutions, and the massive outage has grounded planes, shut down banks and disrupted surgeries. 

“CrowdsStrike has already issued instructions to correct the problem, and Technology Services staff have been working on restoring services since 4AM,” the email continues.

Technology Services also issued an IT alert for all A&M employees, saying the update has “negatively effected [sic] all Texas A&M University environment Windows … includ[ing] TAMU servers, workstations, and work laptops … All campus members who have a Windows workstation, computers in open access labs, and local systems running audio-visual in classrooms, may be affected by this issue.”

If a university-issued Windows device is not booting or displays a blue screen, it must be brought to A&M’s IT support team on campus to be manually restored.

Updates will be posted on A&M’s IT website, linked here.