Companies, banks and airlines worldwide have been hit by a major IT outage which caused 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 company confirmed that it was aware of reports of crashes on Microsoft Windows and admitted on Friday that a defective software update had caused the chaos.
It resulted in thousands of workers being unable to log on to their computers, whilst businesses from finance to healthcare were also affected.
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.”
Following this, early Friday afternoon, Microsoft confirmed that Crowdstrike was communicating with its clients directly through their support portal, with the latter saying in a blog post, “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 wesbite.”
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.
For flights still going ahead, a number of companies were issuing handwritten tickets due to printing issues.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport said: “Due to a technical fault, there will be delays in check-in.”
Spain’s 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: “There is currently a global computer failure. This disruption also has an impact on flights to and from Schiphol. The impact is now being mapped.” The airport also reported long queues, along with London’s Gatwick and Stansted airports.
The Tokyo-Narita airports, as well as the Delhi airports faced delays as well.
Irish airline Ryanair 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.
Dublin airport said in a statement that their team is “on hand to assist Ryanair and passengers in the terminal.”
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.
American Airlines was impacted as well, but confirmed that operations have now been restored.
Delta and United Airlines grounded flights too, with United issuing a statement on X as well.
United Airlines has now restarted some flights.
Similarly, Singapore Airlines was hit too, however, have since managed to get their services and reservation hotlines back on track.
Turkish Airlines were not spared either, however, since then, have already given their passengers additional rights, as well as refund support.
Major Australian airlines such as Qantas and Virgin Australia also had difficulties.
According to Le Figaro, the Roissy and Orly airports in France were not impacted by the Microsoft outage, however, airlines operating at these airports still faced delays.
Broadcasting down
Sky News also went off air after the outage earlier today, although the broadcaster has now restored 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.
CBBC also went off air, with CNEWS, TF1 and RTL journalists also having significant technical issues during broadcasting.
Telecommunications services were disrupted as well, with Australia’s largest telecommunications group Telstra Group suffering as a result.
Health and supermarket 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.”
In Germany, two hospitals in the northern cities of Luebeck and Kiel have cancelled elective operations scheduled for Friday.
Patient care and emergency services will go ahead as normal, the University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein told the BBC.
UK supermarkets such as Morrison’s and Waitrose had to take only cash for their transactions, with Australian stores such as Woolworths also being impacted.
Train services disrupted
Train services have also been impacted by “widespread IT issues” with Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern all reporting problems in the UK.
In the US, Cincinnati Metro reported that real time bus tracking would not be available due to the outage.
