Worldwide IT outages affect banks, airlines, broadcasters and companies
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike says that an issue that has caused major disruptions to companies worldwide is not a security incident or cyberattack.
![The IT outage has affected many sectors from aviation to health and TV channels so far. / Photo: AFP The IT outage has affected many sectors from aviation to health and TV channels so far. / Photo: AFP](https://images-cdn.trtworld.com/trtworld/w664/h374/q70/20445741_0-374-5500-3100.jpeg)
The IT outage has affected many sectors from aviation to health and TV channels so far. / Photo: AFP
As a result of the investigation regarding the global interruption in devices using Windows operating system, it was determined that the outage is linked to US based cyber-security firm CrowdStrike's software.
The disruption was not caused by a cyber-attack, the Information Technologies and Communication Authority of Türkiye announced on Friday.
"CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows related to the Falcon Sensor," the firm said in its website.
Microsoft has said on X platform that its services are seeing continuous improvements while it continues to take mitigation actions.
Microsoft also stated that its services, PowerBI, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 admin center, were affected from the IT outage.
"We're closely monitoring our telemetry data to ensure this upward trend continues as our mitigation actions continue to progress," it noted.
Shares hit
The IT outage hit the company's stock. After beginning Friday at $444.34, the price of a Microsoft share dropped to $435 and is now trading at $440.
On the other hand, Crowdstrike's share price fell by more than 3% on Friday, with a software product being blamed for the outage.
It was over $350 at the beginning of the day and is now a round $343; it also touched the $336 level during the day.
Britain
Britain's Heathrow Airport and Irish no-frills airline Ryanair warned that they faced turbulence over spreading travel chaos emanating from a global IT outage.
Heathrow warned the issue was affecting some systems while Ryanair admitted it faced disruption over a "global third party outage" but both insisted flights remained operational.
Spain
All airports in Spain are experiencing "disruptions" from an IT outage that has hit several companies worldwide, the airport operator Aena said.
"Because of an IT system incident, disruptions are occurring in Aena's systems and at airport networks in Spain that could cause delays," the operator said on X.
United States
Major US air carriers, including Delta, United and American Airlines, were grounded on Friday morning after an alert from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The administration warned air traffic control to announce that carriers are in trouble related to communication issues, according to the news outlet Newsweek.
US airports Aspen, Boston Logan International, Harry Reid International, LaGuardia, Milwaukee Mitchell International, Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma have been affected by the outage.
Services worldwide, from airlines to banks, are facing disruptions due to a series of technical glitches following outage reported by #Microsoft on July 19 pic.twitter.com/B4GwBGWGed
— TRT World (@trtworld) July 19, 2024
Australia
Australia experienced a "large-scale technical outage" on Friday, the country's cybersecurity coordinator said.
Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness said the technical outage has impacted several companies and services throughout Australia.
“Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies,” he said on X.
Singapore
Singapore's airport said that some airlines had been affected by an IT outage, as widespread technical problems were reported by flight operators around the world.
"Due to a global outage affecting IT systems of many organisations, the check-in process for some airlines at Changi Airport is being managed manually," the airport said in a Facebook post.
In pictures: Global IT outage disrupts services operations worldwide, adversely impacting daily life pic.twitter.com/MbssteX7yN
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) July 19, 2024
China
Hong Kong's airport said that some airlines had been affected by an IT outage, as widespread technical problems were reported by flight operators around the world.
"A Microsoft outage that has disrupted the service of airlines worldwide is affecting some of the airlines at Hong Kong International Airport," the Airport Authority said in a statement.
"Flight operations at (Hong Kong's airport) have not been affected."
A message on flag carrier Cathay Pacific's website said that flight booking and redemption services were "currently unavailable".
Netherlands
Dutch airline KLM announced that it was forced to suspend a large part of its operations due to a global IT outage.
"KLM, like other airlines and airports, has also been affected by the global computer outage, making it impossible to handle flights," the company said. "For now, we are forced to suspend most of the operation."
Israel
The Israeli Health Ministry said that a global software malfunction has affected the hospitals and healthcare services in the country.
In a statement, the ministry said “a widespread worldwide malfunction in computer servers affected hospitals and other health services in Israel.”
It noted that “this is not a cyber attack but a malfunction in one of the software that led to the downfall of servers and computers.”