Mass IT outage hits companies around the world as planes grounded

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news.sky.com Jul 19, 2024

The outage is affecting Windows PCs globally, with hundreds of flights grounded worldwide and GP surgeries being left unable to book appointments “ and it could take "weeks" to fix.

Friday 19 July 2024 22:20, UK

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Businesses including banks, airlines, train companies, telecommunications companies, TV and radio broadcasters, and supermarkets have been affected by a mass global IT outage.

Major US airlines including American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines have been grounded, while airports in Germany, Amsterdam and Spain are also reporting issues.

The outage was related to a Microsoft Windows PC update rolled out by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike - and while the company says a fix has been deployed, an expert has warned it could take "weeks" for all computers and systems to be fully restored.

According to an alert sent by CrowdStrike to its clients, the company''s falcon sensor software caused Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, which has begun to be referred to as the "blue screen of death".

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CrowdStrike chief executive, George Kurtz, said in a statement on X that "the defect [was] found in a single content update for Windows hosts".

"This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," Mr Kurtz said.

Adam Leon Smith of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, said: "The fix will have to be applied to many computers around the world. So if computers are getting blue screens and endless loops, it could be more difficult and take days and weeks.

"Microsoft Windows isn''t the main OS for mission-critical systems, that''s Linux - and so this could have been much worse."

The outage affected Windows PCs globally, including at Sky News in the UK which was not able to broadcast live TV first thing on Friday morning.

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The company said in a statement it was seeing disruption to its usual broadcasting and customer service teams due to the third-party outage and apologised for any inconvenience.

UK airports ''experiencing delays''

Flights are being grounded at numerous airports worldwide and passengers in the UK are facing hours of queues to get into terminal buildings, check in and go through security.

As of 8pm, 5,078 flights had been cancelled worldwide - which equates to 4.6% of all scheduled flights globally, according to an aviation analytics company.

Cirium Data also said 167 flights that should have left UK airports have been cancelled so far - which is 5.4% of departures - while 171 inbound arrivals were cancelled.

London''s biggest airport, Heathrow, said in a statement that its "flights are operational though we are experiencing delays".

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It said it was implementing contingency plans to minimise any impact on journeys and passengers are advised to check with their airline for the latest flight information.

Gatwick Airport said "passengers may experience some delays" due to the global outage - particularly when checking in and passing through security.

Luton Airport also said it was aware of the global IT issue and is currently using manual systems to support operations.

Ryanair, Europe''s largest airline by passenger numbers, said it was "forced to cancel a small number of flights today" and told passengers: "If your flight has been cancelled, we kindly request that you leave the airport as the IT outage means we cannot currently assist passengers at the airport."

Edinburgh Airport also urged those whose flights had been cancelled to leave. Passengers there were unable to use automated boarding pass scanners and monitors at security displayed a message saying "server offline", according to a Reuters witness.

The airport had reverted to checking boarding passes manually, the witness said.

''Beyond the control of GP surgeries''

The IT outage has also reached GP surgeries across the UK, which said they are unable to access patient records or book appointments.

NHS England said the IT outage is "causing disruption in the majority of GP practices" in England but there is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services.

Northern Ireland''s Department of Health said two thirds of its GP practices had been impacted.

Grimethorpe Surgery in Barnsley said it had no access to the clinical system, EMIS Web - which allows healthcare practitioners to view and contribute to a patient''s healthcare records.

The Wilmslow Health Centre in Cheshire wrote on X: "All practices in the UK using the NHS-commissioned GP computer system EMIS are currently without access to their IT systems.

"This is beyond the control of GP surgeries. Please bear with us until we have our IT systems back online."

Another surgery in Putney, southwest London, shows an error message online when patients attempt to book appointments.

The Windrush Medical Practice in Witney, Oxfordshire, asked patients with "routine concerns" to wait until Monday after the booking system has been affected by the global outage.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police said it has not been affected, and everything seems to be working normally.

Issues at UK train stations

Also in the UK, Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern - all four of Govia Thameslink Railway''s brands - said its services were experiencing widespread IT issues.

âš ï¸ 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,¦

"We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks," the company said.

"Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected."

However, most trains ran as scheduled - though some passengers encountered problems inside stations as South Western Railway said all its ticket vending machines had stopped working due to IT issues.

Out-of-date prices at London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is among the businesses that have been affected by the global outage, Sky News'' business correspondent, Ian King, said.

A statement posted on the exchange''s website earlier said a technical issue was being investigated with the publication of RNS - the exchange''s Regulatory News Service - announcements.

When trading began at 8am this morning, the exchange''s website was still showing prices from the close on Thursday evening.

The FTSE-100 opened 50 points lower - around 0.62% - at the open but no prices were available on the exchange''s website, King said.

Other major European stock indices have also opened to the downside this morning, with the DAX in Germany down by 0.55% half an hour into the session, while the CAC-40 in France and the MIB in Italy down by 0.45% apiece.

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

.@SkyNews 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.

While users in Australia began reporting issues early on Friday, stating they had been locked out of their workstations.

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Within hours, Australia''s National Security Coordinator said it was aware of the large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across the country.

It said there was currently no information to suggest the outage is a cyber security incident.

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