* What’s happening is a stunning example of the fragile dependence of the global economy on certain programs and the ripple effect it can have when things go wrong.
*The outage is attributed to CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company whose software is used by dozens of industries around the world to protect against hackers and external breaches. A software update released by CrowdStrike appears to be the root cause of the issue, causing devices running Microsoft Windows to crash.
* Spillover effects have emerged around the world.
* At least three major US airlines, American, United and Delta, have suspended all flights, according to the administration.Federal Aviation, one day after a major outage at Microsoft, briefly halted some flights. Ryanair, one of Europe’s largest airlines, said on its website that it was experiencing disruptions across its network due to third-party IT outages “completely beyond our control.” The airline asked customers traveling today to check in at the airport, as online check-in was not available.
* Airports around the world, including Hong Kong International Airport, Sydney Airport, Berlin Brandenburg Airport, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and Dubai International Airport. At Manchester Airport in Britain, there were long queues in the departure area because many of the machines at the check-in counters were not working. Announcements regarding the public address system indicated outages around the world.
* In the US, the outage appears to affect 911 emergency lines in “multiple states,” the US Emergency Alert System said on social media. She said people experiencing emergencies should call the number for the local police or fire department. In Phoenix, there were reports that emergency response systems had malfunctioned, causing at least one hospital to divert ambulances to other facilities.
* In Britain, the National Health Service was suffering from an inability to access its computer systems across a number of hospitals and doctors’ offices, many of which relied on the same internal IT system.
* Several TV broadcasters also reported problems. In France, TF1 and Canal+, among the most watched, said in posts on X that they could not go on air. “We are all on stage, but there is a massive collapse in the control room” making it impossible to go live, TF1 presenter Christophe Beaugrand-Guerin wrote on X.
* “There is no information to suggest that this is a cybersecurity incident,” said Michelle McGuinness, Australia’s national cybersecurity coordinator.
* CrowdStrike representatives did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Microsoft declined to comment at the time of the report.
* The global outage that hit Microsoft Windows computers appears to be caused by a flawed security update for CrowdStrike software called Falcon Sensor, according to independent cybersecurity researcher and consultant Lukasz Olejnik. Although the updated fix has already been sent to computers, Mr Olejnik said it was unclear how long it would take to resolve the issue.
* Disconnections indicate how fragile technology systems are when they are highly interconnected. “One mistake, or malicious tampering, could impact millions of people and cause a significant loss of money,” Luczak said.
by : NEW YORK TIMES
