Global IT outage causes chaos, disrupting airlines, banks, media, telecoms

Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator says ‘no information to suggest it is a cyber security incident’.

Australia cyber — Businesses and institutions have been disrupted by a major IT outage which is also affecting airports in the US, UK, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Malaysia [Tom Westbrook/Reuters]

Published On 19 Jul 2024

Updated:

5 minutes ago

A massive technology outage has disrupted businesses and institutions in multiple countries, throwing airports, airlines, rail companies, government services, banks, stock exchanges, supermarkets, telecoms, health systems and media outlets into chaos.

The cause of the outage was not immediately clear, but it came hours after Microsoft said it was addressing an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.

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Some experts attributed the disruption to CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm whose software is used by industries around the world to protect against hackers and outside breaches.

The problem appeared to result in crashes of machines running Microsoft Windows operating system. CrowdStrike said in a recorded phone message that it was aware of reports of Microsoft’s Windows operating system crashing.

“It has been a quite extraordinarily dysfunctional, disruptive morning from an IT point of view – or indeed mid-afternoon if you’re in Australia where the first signs of a real problem began to emerge, said Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, speaking from London.

“Essentially it happens as you’re sitting in front of your terminal. If your terminal is a Microsoft Windows terminal, it suddenly goes to a blank blue screen. It’s called the ‘blue-screen-of-death’ error. You are locked out of your operating system.

“The big question of course is: ‘Is this some sort of massive tech breakdown or something more sinister, a hugely debilitating global cyberattack?’” The weight of evidence appeared to point to the former, he said.

“CrowdStrike seems to have had some sort of mandatory update to its software that went horribly wrong,” he said. The company had reported that the issue was related to its ‘Falcon’ sensor product, engineers identifying a “content deployment problem”, said Hull.

At the time of reporting, some of the malfunctioning business, companies and computer app systems were beginning to return to normal service, including Sky News in the UK, which was down for an hour in the morning.

Screen showing an error is seen at a currency exchange store at Hong Kong International Airport amid system outages — Screen showing an error at a currency exchange store at Hong Kong International Airport [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

The outages rippled far and wide, with transport systems around the world among the hardest hit.

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In the United States, major airlines Delta, United and American Airlines were grounded on Friday morning due to a communication issue, according to an update by the Federal Aviation Administration.

In Australia, flight information screens at Sydney airport went blank. The airport said that flights were arriving and departing but that travellers should expect delays.

“We have activated our contingency plans and deployed additional staff to our terminals,” it said in a post on X.

Melbourne airport said that check-in procedures for some airlines had been affected.

“Passengers flying with these airlines this afternoon are advised to allow a little extra time to check-in. Please check with your airline for flight updates,” it said in a post on X.

Airports in the United Kingdom, Germany, Malaysia and the Philippines also reported disruptions to services.

Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, one of Europe’s busiest hubs, was also hit, with a spokesperson saying: “The outage has an impact on flights flying from and to Schiphol,” adding that it was not yet clear how many flights were affected.

All airports in Spain were experiencing “disruptions”, the airport operator Aena said.

“Because of an IT system incident, disruptions are occuring in Aena’s systems and at airport networks in Spain that could cause delays,” the operator said on X.

Air France said its operations were also affected, but that flights already en route were not affected.

Hong Kong Airport Authority said airlines affected by the outage have switched to manual check-in and flight operations have not been affected.

Kenya Airways’ booking system was impacted, the airline said, warning customers to expect slower service than usual.

A cash register shows a blue screen at a grocery store affected by a cyber outage in Sydney, Australia — A cash register shows a blue screen at a grocery store in Sydney, Australia [Stella Qiu/Reuters]

Multiple other sectors were also affected.

Banks and other financial institutions from Australia to India and South Africa warned clients about disruptions to their services.

Australia’s largest bank, Commonwealth Bank CBA.AX said some customers had been unable to transfer money due to the service outage.

In the UK, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) was hit by a technical glitch that affected its news service and delayed its display of opening trades.

The LSE’s company news feed “is currently experiencing a third-party global technical issue, preventing news from being published,” the exchange said in a statement.

Media companies also saw their broadcasts severely disrupted.

Australia’s national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Network Ten confirmed that their systems had been affected.

Sky News, one of the UK’s major news broadcasters went off air, apologising for being unable to transmit live.

Government services were also hit.

In the UK, booking systems used by doctors were offline, multiple reports from medical officials on X said.

In Australia, Victoria’s state police said some internal systems had been hit by the outage but emergency services were operating normally.

New Zealand’s parliamentary computer systems were also affected, according to Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, head of the parliamentary service.

Amazon’s AWS cloud service provider said in a statement that it was “investigating reports of connectivity issues to Windows EC2 instances and Workspaces within AWS.”

Not a ‘malicious act’

Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator said on Friday that it was aware of a “large-scale technical outage” affecting numerous business and services across the country.

“Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies,” the agency said in a statement.

“There is no information to suggest it is a cyber security incident. We continue to engage across key stakeholders.”

France’s cybersecurity agency said Friday that there was no evidence that the global IT outage was “the result of a cyberattack.”

“The teams are fully mobilised to identify and support the affected entities in France and to understand… the origin of this outage,” ANSSI, the national cybersecurity agency said.

A UK government security source told Reuters the outage was not being treated as “a malicious act”.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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AL Jazeera: Global IT outage causes chaos, disrupting airlines, banks, media, telecoms

Global IT outage causes chaos, disrupting airlines, banks, media, telecoms

A massive technology outage has disrupted businesses and institutions in multiple countries, throwing airports, airlines, rail companies, government services, banks, stock exchanges, supermarkets, telecoms, health systems and media outlets into chaos.