Global IT outage grounds flights, hits key media, banking sectors
NEW YORK, July 19, 2024
Major US airlines ordered ground stops on Friday citing communications issues, while other carriers, media companies, banks and telecoms firms around the world also reported system outages were disrupting their operations, said media reports.
American Airlines, Delta, United Airlines and Allegiant Air grounded flights less than an hour after Microsoft said it resolved its cloud services outage that impacted several low-cost carriers.
It was not immediately clear whether the call to keep flights from taking off were related to an earlier Microsoft cloud outage.
In Australia, media, banks and telecoms companies suffered outages, which the government said appears to be linked to an issue at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, reported Reuters.
Crowdsourced website Downdetector showed outages at several banks and telecoms companies.
Crowdstrike ran a recorded phone message on Friday when Reuters contacted its technical support saying it was aware of reports of crashes on Microsoft's Windows operating system relating to its Falcon sensor, without mentioning Australia.
There was no information to suggest the outage was a cyber security incident, the office of Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness said in a post on X.
The outages rippled far and wide, with Spain reporting a "computer incident" at all its airports, while Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, warned passengers of potential disruptions which it said would affect “all airlines operating across the Network," though it did not specify the nature of the disruptions.
In UK, television channels, airports and banks have been knocked offline in a massive outage causing Windows computers to suddenly shut down, reported The Telegraph.
Sky News’s breakfast show was not on air on Friday morning, replaced by archive footage.
Downdetector, a website which monitors outages, reported sudden spikes in problems with websites including Microsoft applications, banking websites and airline apps.
On Ryanair’s website, the company urged passengers to arrive at airports three hours early blaming a “third party IT issue, which is outside Ryanair’s control and affect all airlines operating across the network”.
Online, users reported problems as far as Australia, New Zealand, India and Japan, with the UK likely to be heavily impacted as during Friday’s rush hour.
Troy Hunt, a cyber security researcher, said in a post on X that “something super weird happening right now” with individuals around the world complaining their Windows computers were suddenly showing the “blue screen of death” and entering recovery mode.
Cyber security engineers pointed to a problem with Crowdstrike, a piece of antivirus software, which appeared to be causing computers to crash.
Senad Arun, founder of cyber research company Imperum, described the incident as “Crowdstrike Doom’s Day”.
In a post on its website, Crowdstrike said: “Crowdstrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows related to the Falcon Sensor.”
However, media reports said people were still able to phone 999 in an emergency, despite the IT outage disrupting GP services.
An NHS spokesman said: “We’re not currently aware of 999 services being affected.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “No issues that we’re aware of for the Met.”
London Gatwick airport has said “passengers may experience some delays” due to the global outage.
On X, formerly Twitter, the airport posted: "We are affected by the global Microsoft issues, so passengers may experience some delays while checking in and passing through security. Passengers should still arrive for their normal check-in time. We apologise for any inconvenience and are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."
National Rail too warned commuters to expect delays and cancellations as a result of this morning’s IT outage, which is impacting train companies across the UK.
In a post on National Rail’s website, it warned of a “network wide IT issue affecting a number of train operators services this morning”.
Avanti West Coast, Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, London Northwestern, Lumo, Northern, Southern, Thameslink, TransPennine and West Midlands were all impacted.
National Rail said: "There are currently widespread IT issues across the entire network, IT teams are investigating to determine the root cause of the problem."
As a result, some train operators are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice train cancellations. Additional, other key systems including real-time customer information platforms, are also affected.
Britain’s biggest train company has warned passengers to expect disruption due to “widespread IT issues”.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) - parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern - issued an alert on the brands’ social media channels.
The message stated: "We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network. Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem. We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks."
Pubs, bookmakers and football clubs across Britain have been hit by the outage.
Meanwhile The Telegraph quoted a world-renowned cyber security expert as saying that the Friday morning’s global crash may be “the largest IT outage in history”.
Troy Hunt, an Australian computer expert who runs the website HaveIBeenPwned, who is something of a celebrity in the security world, said: “I don’t think it’s too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history.”
In a post on X, he added: “The financial impact of this is already hard to fathom.”
"Something super weird happening right now: just been called by several totally different media outlets in the last few minutes, all with Windows machines suddenly BSoD'ing (Blue Screen of Death). Anyone else seen this? Seems to be entering recovery mode."
