Widespread global tech outage disrupts flights, banks, hospitals and media outlets

By Charlotte Graham-mclay, Elaine Kurtenbach And David Mchugh, The Associated Press on July 19, 2024.

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FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) – A global technology outage caused by a faulty software update grounded flights, knocked banks and media outlets offline, and disrupted hospitals, small businesses and other services on Friday, highlighting the fragility of a digitized world dependent on just a handful of providers.

The trouble with the update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and affecting computers running Microsoft Windows was not a hacking incident or cyberattack, according to CrowdStrike, which apologized and said a fix was on the way.

But hours later, the disruptions continued – and escalated.

Long lines formed at airports in the U.S., Europe and Asia as airlines lost access to check-in and booking services at a time when many travelers are heading away on summer vacations. Hospitals and doctors’ offices had problems with their appointment systems, and cancelled non-urgent surgeries. Several TV stations in the U.S. were also prevented from airing local news early Friday.

Saskia Oettinghaus, a member of the German Olympic diving team, was among those stuck at the Berlin Airport.

“We are on our way to Paris for the Olympic Games and now we are at a standstill here for the time being,” Oettinghaus said.

Other athletes and spectators traveling to Paris were delayed, as were their uniforms and accreditations, but Games organizers said disruptions were limited and didn’t affect ticketing or the torch relay.

A disturbing reminder of vulnerability

“This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core internet infrastructure,” said Ciaran Martin, a professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and former Head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre.

Cyber expert James Bore said real harm would be caused by the outage because systems people have come to rely on at critical times are not going to be available. Hospitals, for example, will struggle to sort out appointments and those who need care may not get it – and it will lead to deaths, he said.

“All of these systems are running the same software,” Bore said. “We’ve made all of these tools so widespread that when things inevitably go wrong – and they will, as we’ve seen – they go wrong at a huge scale.”

The head of Germany’s IT security agency, Claudia Plattner, said that “the problems will last some time – we can’t expect a very quick solution.” A forecast for when exactly all systems will be up and running is difficult, but “it won’t be hours,” she added.

Microsoft spokesperson Frank X. Shaw confirmed in an emailed statement that “a CrowdStrike update was responsible for bringing down a number of Windows systems globally.” Earlier, the company had posted on the social media platform X that it was working to “alleviate impact” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”

During an interview on NBC’s “Today Show” Friday, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologized for the outage, saying the company was “deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies.”

“We know what the issue is” and are working to remediate it, Kurtz said.

“It was only the Microsoft operating system” that was affected, though it didn’t happen on every Microsoft Windows system, he said.

The Austin, Texas-based company’s shares were down nearly 10% in early trading Friday.

A recording playing on its customer service line said, “CrowdStrike is aware of the reports of crashes on Microsoft ports related to the Falcon sensor,” referring to one of its products used to block online attacks.

Broadcasters go dark, surgeries delayed, “˜blue screens of death’

Meanwhile, governments and companies across the world scrambled to respond.

The White House said President Joe Biden was briefed on the outage and his team has been touch with the company and other impacted entities.

New Zealand’s acting prime minister, David Seymour, said on X that officials in the country were “moving at pace to understand the potential impacts,” adding that he had no information indicating it was a cybersecurity threat.

The issue was causing “inconvenience” for the public and businesses, he added.

On the Milan stock exchange, the FTSE MIB index of blue-chip Italian stocks could not be compiled for an hour, though trading continued.

Major delays reported at airports grew on Friday morning, with most attributing the problems in booking systems of individual airlines.

In the U.S., airlines United, American and Delta said that at least some flights were resuming after severe disruptions, though delays would persist.

Airlines and railways in the U.K. were also affected, with longer than usual waiting times.

In Germany, Berlin-Brandenburg Airport halted flights for several hours due to difficulties in checking in passengers, while landings at Zurich airport were suspended and flights in Hungary, Italy and Turkey disrupted.

The Dutch carrier KLM said it had been “forced to suspend most” of its operations.

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport warned that the outage was having a “major impact on flights” to and from the busy European hub. The chaotic morning coincided with one of the busiest days of the year for Schiphol.

Widespread problems were reported at Australian airports, where lines grew and some passengers were stranded as online check-in services and self-service booths were disabled – although flights were still operating. Meanwhile, passengers stood in long lines at Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci airport after flights were cancelled following a global power outage.

In New England, the outage led to delays at airports and for some hospitals to cancel appointments.

At Mass General Brigham, the largest health care system in Massachusetts, all scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and medical visits were cancelled Friday because of the outage, according to a spokesperson. Emergency departments remain open and care for patients in the hospital has not been impacted.

Australia is particularly affected by outages

While the outages were being experienced worldwide, Australia appeared to be severely affected by the issue. Disruption reported on the site DownDetector included the banks NAB, Commonwealth and Bendigo, and the airlines Virgin Australia and Qantas, as well as internet and phone providers such as Telstra.

National news outlets – including public broadcaster ABC and Sky News Australia – were unable to broadcast on their TV and radio channels for hours. Some news anchors went on air online from dark offices, in front of computers showing “blue screens of death.”

Hospitals in several countries also reported problems.

Britain’s National Health Service said the outage caused problems at most doctors’ offices across England. NHS England said in a statement said the glitch was affecting the appointment and patient record system used across the public health system.

Some hospitals in northern Germany canceled all elective surgery scheduled for Friday, but emergency care was unaffected.

Shipping was disrupted too: A major container hub in the Baltic port of Gdansk, Poland, the Baltic Hub, said it was battling problems resulting from the global system outage.

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Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok and Graham-McLay from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed.