Cyber outage links to Windows PCs disrupts airlines, banks and other businesses around the world

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.

Users on the subreddit for cyber security firm Crowdstrike reported issues in India, the United States and New Zealand.

CNN reports that major US airlines, including Delta, United, and American Airlines, experienced a system-wide ground stop on Friday morning due to a technical communication issue.

According to Reuters, a witness stated that passengers at Edinburgh Airport, Scotland, experienced difficulties utilizing automated boarding pass scanners due to security monitors displaying a “server offline” message, as reported by Sky News.

In the UK, Govia Thameslink Railway’s four brands – Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express, and Great Northern – reported widespread IT failures, impacting their services.

Australia’s Telstra Group, a telecommunications company, has also been reported to be facing disruption.

It was observed that Sky News was off air briefly in the UK due to the widespread outages, leaving viewers without access to its broadcast.

An on-screen message on Friday morning, apologising for the interruption, read, “We apologise for the interruption to this broadcast. We hope to restore the transmission of Sky News shortly.”

AFP reports that extensive IT disruptions have hit three Indian airlines, and a technical problem has suspended flights at Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Meanwhile, all Spanish airports were also reported to be grappling with an IT outage, causing widespread travel disruptions.

According to The Guardian UK, the widespread outage has been linked to Windows workstations.

Microsoft 365 users experienced difficulties accessing cloud-based apps on Friday, according to The Guardian UK.

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 the Microsoft Windows operating system. CrowdStrike said in a recorded phone message that it was aware of reports of Microsoft’s Windows operating system crashing.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull in London said, “CrowdStrike seems to have had some sort of mandatory update to its software that went horribly wrong.”

The company had reported that the issue was related to its ‘Falcon’ sensor product, engineers identifying a “content deployment problem”, said Hull.

“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, according to Hull.

“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,” Hull said.

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