A faulty software update to a widely used piece of cybersecurity software has been causing widespread problems across the globe Friday, including flight cancellations and delays, 911 system failures, banking system crashes, and more.

The US woke up to a raft of chaos Friday in what the New York Times describes as another "stunning example of the global economy’s fragile dependence on certain software, and the cascading effect it can have when things go wrong."

At issue was a CrowdStrike software update that crashed computers worldwide that are running the Microsoft Windows operating system. Thesse included United Airlines' entire operation, and as the Chronicle reports, the airline began grounding flights out of SFO Thursday night around 11 pm.

One family described flying from Salt Lake City to San Francisco in order to connect to a flight to Australia, where they were planning to board a cruise on Sunday morning, Australia time. They were told to get off their plane Friday morning around 2:30 am and ultimately told to exit past security at SFO to the ticketing desks where they could be rebooked, joining hundreds of people doing the same.

"We’re out about $15,000 now," said passenger Shauntelle Anderson, speaking the Chronicle, saying that the cruise line told them their tickets were non-refundable.

The stories are sounding similar at other airports across the country, however it seems Southwest Airlines and others at Oakland Airport aren't having the same level of problems. The Chronicle reports that the airport only had seen two cancellations as of 6 am and 19 delays.

Heather Knight reports in the Times that the San Francisco Fire Department responded to a spate of 20 fire alarms across the city in the span of 16 minutes this morning, between 2:34 and 2:50 am, which were all false alarms triggered by the software issue.

Hilariously, Muni isn't having any problems because their systems aren't even connected to the internet. ""Long live floppy disks, I guess!" quips SFMTA spokesperson Erica Kato. Similarly, BART doesn't seem to be experiencing any delays or problems.

In Los Angeles, the entire Los Angeles County Superior Court system melted down, and all remote court appearances were being rescheduled.

UPS is experiencing a systemwide problem that may delay package deliveries, and FedEx tells the Times that it has put contingency plans in place and is working "diligently" to minimize disruptions.

911 systems across California appeared to be operating normally, however 911 systems have been impacted in Oregon, Alaska, and Arizona.

The banking sector also appears to be affected, but only TD Bank has been reported as being affected so far, per the Times, with TD Bank customers saying on social media that they can not access their accounts.

American Airlines reported that it had recovered much of its operations as of 2 am Friday, however it's not clear how long United flights may be impacted, with the cascading impacts of cancellations likely to be felt for days. These include the thousands of Republican delegates who flew United to Milwaukee, and are stuck there right now as they tried to fly home, as the Times reports.

"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts," said the company's CEO, George Kurtz, in a tweet. "Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack."