Global Tech Outage Disrupts Multiple Industries, Leading to Flight Groundings and System Problems Across Various Sectors
On Friday, a global tech outage wreaked havoc across industries, causing disruptions in operations ranging from airlines halting flights to broadcasters going off-air. Major airlines like American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and Allegiant Air decided to ground their flights due to communication problems. This move came shortly after Microsoft announced that it had resolved a cloud services outage which had impacted some low-cost carriers, though the exact connection between the two incidents was unclear.
The outage was not confined to the aviation sector, as a third-party software issue affected computer systems globally, with United acknowledging the impact on their operations. The company stated that they were working on restoring the affected systems and holding all aircraft at departure airports until the issue was resolved, allowing flights already en route to continue to their destinations.
In Australia, the government revealed that outages experienced by media, banks, and telecom companies seemed to be linked to a problem at the global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike. A message sent by Crowdstrike to its clients highlighted that their Falcon Sensor software was causing Microsoft Windows to crash, resulting in the dreaded 'Blue Screen of Death'. While a manual workaround was shared to address the issue, Crowdstrike did not provide any official comments on the matter.
Despite initial concerns, the Australian National Cyber Security Coordinator, Michelle McGuinness, stated that there was no evidence to suggest a cybersecurity breach behind the outage. The impact of these outages extended beyond borders, affecting airports in various countries like Tokyo, Amsterdam, and Berlin, leading to system issues and delays in travel operations.
International airlines, including Ryanair, faced disruptions with their booking systems, compounding the challenges in the travel industry. Closer to home, Britain experienced offline booking systems used by medical professionals, while major news outlets like Sky News had to apologize for being unable to broadcast live.
The financial sector was also hit, with banks and institutions across countries like Australia, India, and South Africa notifying clients of service disruptions. LSEG Group reported an outage in its data and news platform Workspace, further highlighting the widespread impact of the tech outage.
Additionally, Amazon's AWS cloud service provider launched an investigation into connectivity issues with Windows EC2 instances and Workspaces within AWS. As the situation unfolded, it remained unclear whether all the reported outages were tied to Crowdstrike problems or if there were other underlying issues contributing to the tech disruptions.
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