Quick Read:
- Major banks, media, airports and airlines affected by major major glitch
- Microsoft says it is ‘investigating’ problem
- Cyber security software linked with outage
- Complicated workaround found
- A worldwide Microsoft Windows glitch has taken much of the world’s infrastructure offline.
- Payment systems impacted in different parts of the world, including Australia and the UK.
- Australia’s government calls for emergency meeting
- Significant disruption to some Microsoft services
- 911 services disrupted in several US states including Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Ohio.
- Services at London Stock Exchange disrupted
- Sky News is off air
- Reports the issue relates to problem at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike
Everything from banks and payment companies to airlines and train companies said that they would see delays and technical issues following a major IT glitch traced to Microsoft.
Microsoft 365 said that it was investigating the problem and “continue to take mitigation actions”.
Some cancer radiotherapy appointments rescheduled due to IT glitch
For instance, Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust said on Friday morning that radiotherapy treatments at their hospitals had been impacted by the outage.
They have declared a critical incident, saying that they are “currently unable to deliver our scheduled radiotherapy treatments”.
A spokesperson added: “This issue has affected Varian, the IT system we use to deliver radiotherapy treatments. We have contacted our patients who were due to have radiotherapy this morning to reschedule appointments while we work to fix these issues.”
British Airways says some flights might be disrupted
British Airways says that “some” flights might be disrupted and advises people to check their flight status.
“Due to the widely-reported global Microsoft IT outage, some of our flights may experience disruption today. Our teams are working hard to manage the impact of this issue as quickly as possible.
“Please visit our flight status page for the most up-to-date information on your flight. We apologise for any potential impact to your travel plans.
“If you have a connecting flight as part of the same ticket and there’s a chance you may miss your connection, we’ll automatically rebook your onward journey. Please check Manage My Booking.
“Our call centres are also experiencing issues. We’ve introduced greater flexibility on ba.com for customers travelling today on our short-haul network. This flexibility will enable you to make changes to your booking via Manage My Booking free of charge.
“Thank you for your patience and understanding.”
CrowdStrike finally speaks out about problem
George Kurtz, CrowdStrike’s president and chief executive, has finally addressed the issue. He says that it is not a cyber attack, and that a fix has been deployed for the issue.
“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted,” he wrote.
“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.
“We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels.
“Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”
GPs and pharmacies hit by global IT outage disrupting appointment bookings and prescriptions
The problems have hit GPs and pharmacies, the NHS has said. The full story is here.
Train companies apologise and say they are working to fix problems
Rail firms across the UK have been hit by the outage. The Rail Delivery Group, representing train operators, said in a statement: “Train operators have been affected by ongoing global IT issues which may result in some short notice service changes and cancellations, also impacting real-time information screens and services at stations. We are sorry for any customers experiencing disruption to their journeys today; staff are working hard to resolve the issues as soon as possible.
“Most trains are still running across the country and rail staff will be able to provide the latest information to customers in person. You can also visit the National Rail Enquiries website for the latest updates.”
Father of the internet had warned about the ‘fragility’ of our online systems
In what now appears a very prescient warning, father of the internet Vint Cerf had warned only this week that the internet was fragile. That was among his many warnings about the threats his creation faces as it reaches its 50th birthday.
Problem does not appear to be a ‘mega cyber attack’, expert says
Dan Card, of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and a cyber security expert said: “People should remain calm whilst organisations respond to this global issue. It’s affecting a very wide range of services from banks to stores to air travel.
“It looks like a bug to a regular security update, rather than any form of ‘mega cyber attack’, but this is still causing worldwide challenges and is likely to require a large number of people to make manual remedial steps
“Companies should make sure their IT teams are well supported as it will be a difficult and highly stressful weekend for them as they help customers of all kinds. People often forget the people that are running around fixing things.”
US secretary of transportation speaks:
Peter Buttigieg, the US secretary of transportation, posted overnight to say that his department will hold all airlines ‘to their responsibilities to meet the needs of passengers’.
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