A computer outage has paralyzed many companies around the world on Friday, while the American tech giant Microsoft, which was affected, said it was taking “mitigation measures” while the problem is resolved.
Grounded planes, queues at airports, telecommunications problems at Australian TV ABC, disruption to the London Stock Exchange: in the last few hours, the number of companies reporting outages or disruptions has multiplied.
Microsoft confirmed overnight Thursday into Friday that Microsoft 365 users may “be unable to access various Microsoft 365 applications and services.”
The company says the situation is attributable to an update to CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor security software and assures that it remains “mobilized to manage this event with the highest priority and urgency, while continuing to address the ongoing impact to the remaining Microsoft 365 applications that are in a degraded state.”
On X, Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz admitted earlier this week that there was a problem with an update to its software for Windows systems. The problem has been identified and a patch has been deployed, he said, after assuring that “this is not a security incident or a cyberattack.”
CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
On the X account “Microsoft 365 Status”, the computer giant indicated around 6:45 a.m. that “the underlying cause has been corrected”, but that a “residual impact” of the problem may continue to disrupt applications and services of the popular software. In the meantime, it invites its users to revert to the previous version of the software, indicating the procedure to follow.
Many airports reported being affected by the outage, including Zurich, Berlin, Amsterdam-Schipol and all those in Spain, while several airlines reported problems: American airlines Delta, United and American Airlines, Air France, Irish airline Ryanair, as well as three Indian airlines.
A spokesman for Berlin Airport announced that traffic had partially resumed by mid-morning. Earlier, he had announced “delays in check-in”.
Dutch airline KLM, a member of the Air France-KLM group, announced that it had had to suspend “the majority of its operations, the computer failure making it impossible to manage flights.”
Hospitals affected in the Netherlands
Spanish airport manager Aena, the world’s largest airport operator by number of passengers, reported possible “delays” in a message on the social network X, stressing that this “global technical incident mainly affects passenger check-in and information points.”
Until the outage is resolved, the operator said it was carrying out some operations “using manual systems”, as was the case with Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet, which has reverted to manual check-in and boarding.
Passengers were “stranded” in the coastal region of Goa, a popular holiday destination, due to a technical problem affecting check-in, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
Ryanair, for its part, advised “all passengers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before the scheduled departure time.”
In Beauvais, France, where low-cost carriers Ryanair and Wizz Air operate, operations are running as normal, according to the live flight and arrivals board on the airport’s website.
Several hospitals in the Netherlands reported being affected by the outage, leading to the closure of emergency departments and the postponement of operations.
Britain’s largest rail operator has spoken of “potential last-minute cancellations” as companies are unable to access certain driver systems.
“Other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected,” the message continued, urging passengers to check before their journey.
Global stock markets were down on Friday amid a host of economic and political uncertainties, but also concerns about the outage, which also prevented the London and Milan stock market indices from posting their rate of change at their usual opening time of 7 a.m. GMT. They finally started trading about twenty minutes late.
The London Stock Exchange remains disrupted, however, according to a note published on its website: “The RNS information service is currently experiencing a global technical problem linked to a third party, preventing the publication of information.”
With Duty