A global IT outage has caused chaos at airports, banks, healthcare facilities and businesses around the world after a faulty software update caused the “largest IT outage in history”.
Microsoft’s Windows system was at the centre of the outage after it was hit by a faulty software update from US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, leaving large numbers of employees with an error message dubbed a “blue screen of death” as their computers would no longer boot. Experts said the recovery could take days as each affected PC would have to be manually repaired.
In the UK, Whitehall crisis officials coordinated the response through the Cobra committee, which deals with cases of national emergency or major disruption. Ministers were in touch with their sectors to deal with the impact of the IT outage, and the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said she was working “at the same pace as the industry” after trains and flights were hit.
Many people are feeling the effects of the current IT outages, which are affecting service delivery across the country and worldwide.
Ministers are working with their sectors and industries on this issue.
I am in close contact with teams coordinating our response through the COBR response system
— Pat McFadden (@patmcfaddenmp) July 19, 2024
A Microsoft spokesperson said: “We are aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to a third-party software platform update. We expect a resolution to be available shortly.”
CrowdStrike confirmed that the outage was caused by a software update to one of its products and not a cyberattack.
Troy Hunt, a leading cybersecurity consultant, said the scale of the IT outage was unprecedented.
“I don’t think it’s too early to say: this will be the biggest IT outage in history,” he wrote on X. “This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except this time it actually happened.”
Among the companies affected was Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, which said on its website: “Possible network disruptions due to a global outage of an external system… We advise passengers to arrive at the airport three hours before their flight to avoid disruption.”
In the US, flights were grounded due to communications issues that appear to be related to the outage. American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines were among the carriers affected. Berlin Airport temporarily suspended all flights on Friday, while Melbourne Airport in Australia told customers that there was “a global technology issue affecting check-in procedures for some airlines.”
More than 1,000 flights have been cancelled worldwide so far due to the IT outage, according to aviation analysis firm Cirium.
A passenger at Gatwick Airport, the UK’s second-largest airport, described the scene at the travel hub as “chaos”, with staff handing out water to stranded travellers.
GP practices across the UK said they were unable to access patient records or book appointments. Practices took to social media to say they were unable to access the EMIS web system. NHS hospitals and 999 services are reportedly unaffected by the outage. The National Pharmacy Association confirmed that UK services may be affected.
A spokesman for Keir Starmer said they were not aware the issue would impact government services.
She said the government recognises its wider impact and that the public should follow the advice of carriers and others.
The prime minister did not attend the Cobra meeting as he was hosting Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky for a cabinet meeting at the time.
“We are certainly aware of the disruption this has caused to businesses and those wishing to travel today in particular. We are closely monitoring the situation and ensuring the relevant industries can utilise the support we can provide,” the spokesperson said.
Israel’s Health Ministry said “the global outage” had affected 16 hospitals, while in Germany, the University Hospital of Schleswig-Holstein in the north of the country said it had cancelled all planned surgeries in Kiel and Lubeck.
In the UK, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) – the parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern – warned passengers to expect delays. According to service status monitoring website Downdetector, users in the UK reported problems with services from Visa, BT, major supermarket chains, banks, online gaming platforms and media outlets. Channels Sky News and CBBC were also temporarily off air in the UK before resuming broadcasts.
In financial services, Metro Bank reported problems with its phone lines in the UK and Santander said card payments “may be affected”. Monzo said some customers were reporting problems, while some bankers at JP Morgan were unable to log into their systems and the London Stock Exchange said there were problems with its news service.
Alan Woodward, a professor of cybersecurity at the University of Surrey, said the outage was likely caused by an IT product called CrowdStrike Falcon, which monitors the security of large networks of computers and downloads a piece of surveillance software to each device.
“The product is used by large organizations with a large number of PCs to ensure that everything is monitored. Unfortunately, if they lose all the PCs, they can no longer operate, or only with a much lower level of service,” Woodward said, adding that resolving the issue could take days.
“The biggest frustration is that resolving the issue requires manual intervention on each affected PC, meaning massive delays in remediation and disruption for days to come,” he said.
CrowdStrike President George Kurtz wrote in a post on X that the incident was caused by a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.” He added, “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been implemented.”