Airlines, banks, health care have operations disrupted in global IT outage

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 health care hit by system problems.

According to an alert sent by global cybersecurity firm 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 problem crashed Windows machines and servers, sending them into a loop of recovery so that they couldn’t restart.

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” company CEO George Kurtz said in a message posted on social media. “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’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this, including our company,” Kurtz said in an interview with NBC’s morning news program Today.

Kurtz said that while some systems won’t automatically recover, the company would “make sure every customer is fully recovered.”

The issue affected Microsoft 365 apps and services. The website DownDectector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, as well as airlines.

Microsoft said on Friday that the underlying cause for outage of its 365 apps and services has been fixed, but the residual impact of cybersecurity outages are continuing to affect some customers.

Several airlines affected

In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration said the airlines United, American, Delta and Allegiant had all been grounded. Travellers at Los Angeles International Airport slept on a jetway floor, using backpacks and other luggage for pillows, due to a delayed United flight to Dulles International Airport early on Friday. Airlines, railways and television stations in the United Kingdom were being disrupted by the computer issues.

Airline traffic was especially affected, though the impacts were variable. A spokesperson from Toronto’s Pearson Airport told CBC News the impacts varied “airline to airline.”

“As of now, Air Canada, Westjet, Sunwing and Flair operations have not been affected. We’re still seeing issues with major American airlines (Delta, American, United) as well as Porter Airlines,” Pearson said in a separate statement.

Porter Airlines, which operates flights across Canada and to some U.S. locations, said all flights would be cancelled until at least noon ET on Friday. The company said just after 6 a.m. that its call centre agents did not have access to reservation or rebooking information, and it’s directing customers to its website for updates.

“Any passengers needing to cancel travel plans as a direct result of the systems issue will be offered refunds,” said Porter. “Normal flight change fees are also being waived.”

Representatives from the international airports in Montreal and Vancouver told CBC News that U.S. customs officials could not process passengers heading to American destinations due to the disruption. 

Montreal-Trudeau International Airport said “the problem has been resolved and passenger processing is gradually resuming.”  

Airports across Canada have advised customers travelling or doing pickups of family and friends to check flight status with the airlines before heading out.

Edinburgh Airport said the system outage meant waiting times were longer than usual. London’s Stansted Airport said some airline check-in services were being completed manually, but flights were still operating.

Widespread problems were reported at airports in India, affecting thousands, while Hong Kong’s Airport Authority said in a statement that the outage was affecting some airlines at the city’s airport and they had switched to manual check-in.

Tokyo, Amsterdam, Berlin and several Spanish airports reporting problems with their systems and delays.

French airports said the issues were airline-specific and the Paris Olympics organizing committee said on Friday the impact of the global outage on its operations was limited and ticket sales were unaffected ahead of the Summer Games which begin in exactly one week.

Zurich Airport, the busiest in Switzerland, suspended landings for a time on Friday morning and said that check-ins had to be done manually in some cases, but that the airport’s own systems were running.

Broadcasters, hospitals report issues

News outlets in Australia reported that airlines, telecommunications providers and banks, and media broadcasters were disrupted as they lost access to computer systems. 

Sky News, one of Britain’s major news broadcasters was off air, apologizing for being unable to transmit live.

The CBC experienced some issues with automated broadcasting processes, affecting control room operations, cameras and graphics, that were resolved after a few hours.

Australia appeared to be severely affected by the issue. Outages 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.

Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) said a global IT outage was affecting its appointment and patient record system, but that it hadn’t seen any impact on critical emergency services.

CrowdStrike is among the most popular cybersecurity companies, counting more than 20,000 subscription customers around the world. Over half of Fortune 500 companies used CrowdStrike software, the U.S. firm said in a promotional video this year.