- Friday, September 06, 2024
Banks and other financial institutions from Australia to India and South Africa warned clients about disruptions to their services due to global IT outage
By: Shajil Kumar
A global tech outage was disrupting operations in multiple industries on Friday, with airlines halting flights, some broadcasters off-air and everything from banking to healthcare hit by system problems.
Microsoft on Friday said that it is aware of the issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform. A Microsoft spokesperson said: “We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming”.
In Britain, booking systems used by doctors were offline, multiple reports from medical officials on X said, while Sky News, one of the country’s major news broadcasters was off air, apologising for being unable to transmit live.
The NHS has said that most GP practices have been disrupted by the global IT outage.
GPs have been struggling to access their records systems, which include online bookings, and pharmacy services such as accessing prescriptions have also been affected, BBC reports.
An NHS spokesman said that patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise. “Only contact your GP if it’s urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111.”
Heathrow Airport has warned that it was facing turbulence over spreading travel chaos emanating from a global IT outage.
Heathrow said the issue was affecting some systems but insisted that flights remained operational.
“Microsoft is currently experiencing a global outage which is impacting select systems at Heathrow,” the airport posted on X.
“Flights are operational and we are implementing contingency plans to minimise any impact on journeys. Please check with your airline for the latest flight information.”
The London Stock Exchange was hit by a technical glitch that affected its news service and delayed its display of opening trades.
A source close to the LSE told AFP that the issue was linked to a technical issue affecting Microsoft customers worldwide.
The LSE’s company news feed “is currently experiencing a third-party global technical issue, preventing news from being published,” the exchange said in a statement.
“Technical teams are working to restore the service. Other services across the group, including London Stock Exchange, continue to operate as normal.”
Banks and other financial institutions from Australia to India and South Africa warned clients about disruptions to their services.
India affected
Five Indian airlines announced disruptions to their booking systems on Friday.
“Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage,” IndiGo, the country’s largest airline by market share, said in a post on social media platform X.
“During this time booking, check-in, access to your boarding pass, and some flights may be impacted.”
National carrier Air India said its systems had been “impacted temporarily due to the current Microsoft outage”, causing travel delays.
Budget operator SpiceJet said it had reverted to manual check-ins and boarding after “technical challenges”.
“Our teams are diligently working with our service provider to resolve these issues promptly,” the airline said.
Akasa Air and Vistara also reported outages.
Delhi Airport in India’s capital said it was “working with all our stakeholders to minimise the inconvenience” to passengers.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported that passengers were “stranded” in the coastal holiday hotspot Goa as a result of a technical glitch with the airport’s check-in system.
Several brokerages in India, including Nuvama Wealth Management, Edelweiss Mutual Fund, Motilal Oswal, IIFL Securities, 5Paisa Capital and Angel Broking are facing technical difficulties, traders at the brokerages told Reuters.
India’s IT ministry is in touch with Microsoft regarding global outage, said Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday. The minister claimed that the government-run National Informatics Centre (NIC) has not been affected.
Travel sector hit
The travel industry was among the hardest hit with airports around the world, including Tokyo, Amsterdam, Berlin and several Spanish airports reporting problems with their systems and delays.
Ryanair , Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, warned of problems with their booking systems and other disruptions.
American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and Allegiant Air grounded flights citing communication problems.
The order came shortly after Microsoft said it resolved its cloud services outage that impacted several low-cost carriers, though it was not immediately clear whether those were related.
“A third party software outage is impacting computer systems worldwide, including at United. While we work to restore those systems, we are holding all aircraft at their departure airports,” United said in a statement. “Flights already airborne are continuing to their destinations.”
Crowdstrike
Australia’s government said outages suffered by media, banks and telecoms companies there appeared to be linked to an issue at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike.
According to an alert sent by Crowdstrike to its clients and reviewed by Reuters, the company’s “Falcon Sensor” software is causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known informally as the “Blue Screen of Death”.
The alert, which was sent at 0530 GMT on Friday, also shared a manual workaround to rectify the issue.
A Crowdstrike spokesperson did not respond to emails or calls requesting comment.
There was no information to suggest the outage was a cyber security incident, the office of Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness said in a post on X.
The outages rippled far and wide. (Agencies)
