European Centre for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies, Germany & Netherlands – ECCI
Microsoft global IT outage hits businesses across the world
Companies, banks and airlines worldwide have been hit by a major IT outage which is causing massive disruption to a wide range of services. Here’s a look at the businesses and sectors that have been impacted.
The global issue affecting the Windows operating system has been linked to the cybersecurity firm, Crowdstrike. In a statement on its website, the firm confirmed that it was aware of reports of crashes on Microsoft Windows. Thousands of workers have been unable to log on to their computers and businesses from finance to healthcare have been affected.
Tech journalist Chris Stokel-Walker suggested the major Microsoft outage was due to an update from the computer threat checker Crowdstrike Falcon.
On X, Microsoft 365 acknowledged the issue that was affecting users and said on Friday morning: “We’re investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.”
One leading cybersecurity expert called the incident “unforgivable”.
Alan Woodward, professor of cybersecurity at Surrey University, told The Times: “The big question is, how the hell did that get through testing? How did it get launched onto the world? “That’s just unforgivable … that something as embedded as that, which can cause such problems … it can’t have been thoroughly tested before it was launched or they would have seen it.”
Airlines disrupted
Airlines were among the businesses that took to social media to update passengers on flight disruptions after reports started to emerge about the IT outage. Berlin Brandenburg Airport said: “Due to a technical fault, there will be delays in check-in.”
Vueling Airlines also updated its passengers with a post on social media platform X and said: “We inform you that due to a global computer systems outage, our flight operations could be altered. “We are working to minimise the impact on our clients. If your flight is affected we will inform you via email.”
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol also updated passengers with a statement on its website and said: “here is currently a global computer failure. This disruption also has an impact on flights to and from Schiphol. The impact is now being mapped.”Irish airline Ryan Air said it is also experiencing challenges with its check-in processes and has requested that their passengers arrive at the airport three hours prior to their flight.
“The Dublin Airport team is on hand to assist Ryanair and passengers in the terminal. We thank everyone for their patience,” the company said in a statement.
KLM said it was also experiencing service difficulties.
“KLM and other airlines and airports have been affected by a global computer outage, making flight handling impossible. We realise that this is very inconvenient for our customers and staff, particularly in the midst of the summer holiday season. We’re working hard to resolve the problem”
In India, SpiceJet joined global airlines to report a problem.
“We are currently experiencing technical challenges with our service provider, affecting online services including booking, check-in, and manage booking functionalities. As a result, we have activated manual check-in and boarding processes across airports,” it said on X.
Broadcasting down. Sky News also went off air after the outage with the broadcaster telling viewers it was working hard to restore services.
“Sky News have not been able to broadcast live TV this morning, currently telling viewers that we apologise for the interruption. Much of our news report is still available online, and we are working hard to restore all services,” David Rhodes said on X.
The RNS news service was also hit, preventing news from being published on the London Stock Exchange website with “technical teams working to restore the service”.
Other services across the group continued to operate as normal, however.
Health services hit Meanwhile, in the UK, the outage has impacted the National Health Service (NHS) with the medical computer system EMIS also down.The system allows doctors to book appointments, view patient notes, order prescriptions and make referrals.
GTD Healthcare, a major UK healthcare provider in the North West of England using the system said in a statement on its website: “Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web – the clinical computer system used within GP practices.”This will affect our ability to book appointments/consult with patients this morning. We apologise for the disruption.”
Train services disrupted Train services have also been impacted by “widespread IT issues” with Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern all reporting problems.
European Centre for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies, Germany & Netherlands – ECCI
