The age-old recommendation to upgrade to the latest operating system for security reasons was called into question after the CrowdStrike outage on Friday. Almost every airline was affected, except for one that managed to withstand the impact. Surprisingly, it did so because it was using a 32-year-old operating system.
Southwest and Microsoft. On Friday, almost all flights in the U.S. were suspended due to a crash in the CrowdStrike system, causing a ripple effect that also disrupted operations in hospitals and small businesses worldwide. However, Southwest Airlines, the nation’s fourth largest carrier, remained unaffected by the outage.
Its planes continued to run smoothly, unaffected by the global IT outage that was causing worldwide chaos. Experts attributed this to the company’s use of Windows 3.1, a version of Microsoft’s OS from 32 years ago. In fact, most of the company’s systems are reportedly based on Windows 95 and Windows 3.1.
Safe mode by not upgrading. The reason that probably made using Windows 3.1 a good call seems quite clear. The operating system, released in 1992, no longer receives any updates. So, when CrowdStrike sent the faulty update to all of its customers, it didn’t affect Southwest because it didn’t receive an update in the first place. The situation is both comical and beneficial to the company.
The CrowdStrike glitch affected dozens of airlines and caused them to have to ground their fleets because many of their background systems, including pilot and fleet scheduling, maintenance records, and ticketing, didn't work. However, fortunately for Southwest, the update didn’t affect its systems, ensuring that everything in the air remained safe and under the control of its pilots.
The world is upside down. Southwest wasn’t the only company that hadn’t updated Windows in a while. Other companies like UPS and FedEx didn’t experience any issues during the CrowdStrike outage either because they were running essential parts of Windows 3.1.
Moreover, in addition to Windows 3.1, Southwest also uses Windows 95 for its staff scheduling system. This is a newer operating system (about three years older than Windows 3.1), but it’s still old compared to today’s technology. In fact, many airline staff members had previously complained about this.
CrowdStrike has been fixed. Regarding the update bug, Microsoft recently confirmed that the root cause of the problem has been resolved. However, it may take a few days for everything to be back to normal. On Friday, CEO Satya Nadella stated that they were “aware of the issue and [were] working with CrowdStrike and others in the industry to provide technical guidance and support to help customers securely bring their systems back online.”
It seems likely that Southwest, which may have been considering upgrading its systems to a current operating system, will now have doubts. Its supposedly outdated technology appears to have shielded them from the widespread issues experienced by several other companies.
This article was written by Miguel Jorge and originally published in Spanish on Xataka.
Image | Dylan Ashe
Related | How to Fix the CrowdStrike and Microsoft Bug on an Affected Computer
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