A global technology outage disrupted several industries: airlines grounded flights, some broadcasters went off air, and system problems occurred everywhere from banking to healthcare. Microsoft said it had resolved an outage in cloud services that affected several low-cost airlines, though it was not immediately clear if they were related.
According to international news agencies, a bug affecting Windows is disrupting the operation of airports, airlines, railways, banks and other major systems worldwide, including disruptions at all Spanish airports, Berlin and Amsterdam airports, the largest British railway company, the British Sky television company, and in many companies in Australia and New Zealand. According to Budapest Airport, the problem at Liszt Ferenc Airport affects Eurowings, Ryanair, Turkish Airlines and Wizz Air flights. Several airlines have decided to carry out passenger check-in manually.
The Australian government says the outages suffered by media, banks and telecommunications companies are linked to an issue at global cyber security firm Crowdstrike. According to an alert sent by Crowdstrike to its customers, the company’s “Falcon Sensor” software causes Microsoft Windows to crash and display blue screens. The alert sent early Friday included a manual fix to fix the problem. There is no information available to suggest the outage was a cyber security incident, Michelle McGuinness, Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator, said in a post on X.
In Britain, the booking systems used by doctors were not working, health officials repeatedly reported on X, while Sky News, one of the country’s biggest news providers, apologized for not being able to broadcast live. Banks and other financial institutions from Australia to India and South Africa warned their customers about disruptions to their services. German banks are also struggling with disruptions, said a spokesman for the financial industry association Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft. South Africa’s Capitec Bank said card payments, ATM and App services were fully restored after experiencing significant disruptions. Cloud provider Amazon AWS said in a statement that it is “investigating reports of issues connecting to Windows EC2 instances and workspaces within AWS.”
Traders in oil, gas, electricity, stocks, foreign exchange and bonds from London to Singapore are finding it difficult to operate. LSEG Group, which runs the London Stock Exchange, said its Workspace news and data platform had suffered a worldwide outage affecting users due to a “global third-party technical issue”. The European Energy Exchange said that customers using the Trayport energy and gas trading platform experienced problems trading “due to infrastructure issues with the third-party provider”. The operations of Shell and BP, as well as the Vitol trading house, are also affected. “We’re experiencing the old mother of all global blackouts,” said one trader. “People can’t turn on their computers after the reboots. The ones that haven’t restarted are working fine,” said another dealer.
The fault is affecting the travel industry the most: airports around the world, including Tokyo, Amsterdam, Berlin and several Spanish airports, have reported problems with their systems and delays. International airlines, including Ryanair – Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers – have warned of problems and other disruptions in their reservation systems.
Based on the information received from the ground handling companies, Budapest Airport informs the passengers via voice announcement, and provides water to those waiting on the spot. Budapest Airport asks departing passengers, if they have a boarding pass with a bar code or QR code, have completed baggage check-in, or are traveling with hand luggage only, to enter Terminal 2A directly and go to the passenger security check. In order to avoid further congestion, passengers are also requested to enter the terminal building unaccompanied.
According to Wizz Air, like other airlines, they found themselves faced with an extraordinary technical challenge after the shutdown of their international IT partner’s system. In their announcement, they wrote: “Due to the failure of the IT system, Wizz Air passengers may experience interruptions in the airline’s international network”. It was also reported that Wizz Air’s website and mobile application, the reservation system, online passenger check-in and boarding pass issuance, new bookings and changes to existing bookings, and even the contact and customer service centers are not available. Airport check-in is free for all passengers during the shutdown. The airline advises its passengers to arrive at the airport at least 3 hours before the scheduled departure to allow sufficient time for check-in and security.
Abroad, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines and Allegiant Air have all suspended flights citing communication problems. “A third-party software outage is affecting computer systems worldwide, including at United. While we work to restore these systems, we are keeping all aircraft at the airport of departure,” United said in a statement. “Flights that have already departed will continue their way to their destination”.
Source: sg.hu
