- A large-scale IT outage affects businesses around the world
- The outage was likely caused by Microsoft's CrowdStrike software.
- CrowdStrike CEO says a flaw in a single piece of content caused the technical issue.
SYDNEY: A software update wreaked havoc on computer systems around the world on Friday, grounding flights, forcing some broadcasters off the air and disrupting services from banking to healthcare across much of the world.
The issue occurred after an update to a product offered by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which apparently triggered the problem, affected customers using Microsoft's Windows operating system. Microsoft said later on Friday that the problem had been fixed.
Banks and financial services firms from Australia to India to Germany warned customers of disruptions, and traders across markets reported problems executing transactions.
“We are experiencing the biggest disruption in all global markets,” said one trader.
In Britain, booking systems used by doctors were offline, multiple reports published on X by medical officials said, while Sky News, one of the country's main news channels, was off the air, apologizing for not being able to broadcast live, and Manchester United football club said on X that it had to postpone a scheduled ticket drop.
CrowdStrike attacked
In an alert to customers issued at 0530 GMT on Friday, CrowdStrike said its “Falcon Sensor” software was causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, informally known as the “blue screen of death.” It also shared a manual workaround to rectify the problem.
More than half of Fortune 500 companies used CrowdStrike software, the US firm said in a promotional video this year.
“This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world's basic internet infrastructure,” said Ciaran Martin, a professor at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government and former director of the U.K.'s National Cyber Security Centre.
The cuts spread everywhere.
Airports in Singapore, Hong Kong and India said the disruption meant some airlines had to check in passengers manually.
Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, one of Europe's busiest, reported it was affected, while airline Iberia said it had been operating manually at airports until its electronic check-in desks and online check-in were reactivated. It added that there were some delays but no flight cancellations.
CEO says a single update caused havoc
CrowdStrike CEO and President George Kurtz said Friday that a flaw in a single content update for Windows hosts was the source of the significant disruption to his company's system, not a security event or cyberattack.
Several industries were affected by the global technological disruption, which caused airlines to cancel flights, some broadcasters to stop transmitting and caused system problems in everything from banking to health care.
Providing an update on the system, Kurtz said his company was actively working with customers affected by the flaw.
“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been implemented. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide ongoing, comprehensive updates on our website,” it said.
He also recommended that organizations make sure to communicate with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. “Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers,” he added.
His statement came hours after a major outage on the Crowdstrike system wreaked havoc on global computing systems on Friday, grounding flights in the United States, derailing television broadcasts in the United Kingdom and impacting telecommunications in Australia.
Major U.S. airlines including Delta, United and American Airlines have grounded all flights due to a communications issue, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Flights have been suspended at Berlin Brandenburg airport in Germany due to a “technical problem,” a spokeswoman said. AFP.
“There are delays at check-in and flight operations had to be cancelled until 10:00 am (08:00 GMT),” the spokeswoman said, adding that she could not say when they would resume.
All airports in Spain were experiencing “disruptions” due to a computer glitch that affected several companies around the world on Friday, airport operator Aena said.
Hong Kong's airport also said some airlines had been affected and its authority issued a statement linking the disruption to a Microsoft outage.
Meanwhile, the UK's biggest rail operator warned of possible train cancellations due to computer problems, while photos posted online showed huge queues forming at Sydney Airport in Australia.
“Flights are currently arriving and departing, although there may be some delays overnight,” a Sydney Airport spokesman said.
“We have activated our contingency plans with our partner airlines and have deployed additional staff at our terminals to assist passengers.”
Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator said the “large-scale technical disruption” was caused by an issue with a “third-party software platform,” adding that there was no information yet to suggest hackers were involved.
Banks and airports affected
News from heaven In the UK, the outage had ended its morning news broadcasts, while the Australian broadcaster ABC A major “outage” was also reported.
Some self-checkout terminals at one of Australia's largest supermarket chains were left unusable, displaying blue error messages.
New Zealand media said banks and computer systems within the country's parliament were reporting problems.
Australian telecoms firm Telstra suggested the outages were caused by “global issues” affecting software provided by Microsoft and cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
Microsoft said in a statement that it was taking “mitigation actions” in response to the service issues.
It was unclear whether these were related to the global outages.
“Our services continue to see ongoing improvements as we continue to take mitigation measures,” Microsoft said in a post on social media platform X.
CrowdStrike could not immediately be reached for comment.
'Enormous'
Toby Murray, an expert at the University of Melbourne, said there were indications the problem was linked to a security tool called Crowdstrike Falcon.
“CrowdStrike is a global cybersecurity and threat intelligence company,” Murray said.
“Falcon is what is known as an endpoint detection and response platform, which monitors the computers it is installed on to detect intrusions (i.e. attacks) and respond to them.”
Jill Slay, a cybersecurity researcher at the University of South Australia, said the global impact of the disruptions would likely be “massive.”
The impact on air travel
Air passengers around the world faced delays, cancellations and problems checking in as airports and airlines were hit by a massive IT failure that also affected industries ranging from banks to media companies.
Of the more than 110,000 commercial flights scheduled for Friday, 1,390 have been cancelled globally so far and more are expected to follow, according to data from global aviation analytics firm Cirium.
In Edinburgh, a Reuters A witness said boarding pass scanners carried a “server offline message” and the airport said passengers should not travel to the airport without first checking their flight status online.
Elsewhere, airports and airlines advised customers to arrive earlier than usual to catch their flights. Analysts said the disruption was likely linked to a bug in Microsoft software used globally.
