Technical outage update | Airlines, others rush to get back on track after global technical outage

A technician works on an information display near a United Airlines gate after a faulty CrowdStrike update caused a major internet outage on Microsoft Windows-powered computers at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Friday, July 19, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Carolyn Custer

Transport agencies, businesses and governments were rushing Saturday to get all systems back online after prolonged disruptions caused by widespread technology outages.

The biggest ongoing impact will be on air travel, with airlines cancelling thousands of flights on Friday and many planes and crew members now in the wrong locations, while airports continue to experience check-in and security issues.

At the center of the massive outage is CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company that provides software to many companies around the world. The company said the problem was caused by a flawed update applied to computers running Microsoft Windows, and that the outage was not caused by a security incident or cyberattack.

For the latest updates, please see:

Microsoft: 8.5 million devices running Windows systems affected

Microsoft said on Friday that a faulty cybersecurity update affected 8.5 million devices running its Windows operating system, causing global disruption.

A blog post from Microsoft on Saturday was the first to estimate the scope of the disruption caused by a software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

“We currently estimate that the CrowdStrike update affects 8.5 million Windows devices, or less than 1% of all Windows machines,” Microsoft cybersecurity chief David Weston said in a blog post.

“While this is a small percentage, it reflects the widespread economic and societal impact that CrowdStrike's use by companies that run many essential services has.”

Weston said such severe outages are rare but “show the interconnectedness of our broad ecosystem.” Windows is the dominant operating system for personal computers around the world.

Austrian doctors call for stronger protection of patient data

In Austria, a leading doctors' association said the global IT outage had exposed the vulnerability of a health care system that relies on digital technology.

“Yesterday's incident highlights how important it is for hospitals to have analog backups to safeguard patient care,” Harald Meyer, vice president of the Austrian Medical Association, said in a statement on the association's website.

The group called on governments to impose high standards on the protection and security of patient data, and for health care providers to train staff and implement systems for crisis management.

“We were fortunate that any problems in Austria were small and short-lived and many areas of healthcare were not affected,” Meyer said.

Germany warns of fraud after major IT outage

BERLIN – Germany's government IT security agency said many companies were still suffering the effects of the widespread technology outage.

“A computer systems failure has caused disruption to a number of business processes and procedures,” the BSI said on its website.

But the department also said Saturday that many affected areas have returned to normal.

The company warned that cybercriminals were trying to take advantage of the situation through phishing, fake websites and other fraudulent activities, and that “unofficial” software code was in the circulation.

The agency said it was not yet clear how the flawed code got into the CrowdStrike software update that allegedly caused the outage.

European airports appear to be mostly operating as normal

LONDON (Reuters) – Heathrow Airport, Europe's busiest, said it was operating normally on Saturday despite being busy. “All systems have been restored and passengers are able to travel smoothly,” the airport said in a statement.

Some 167 flights due to depart from UK airports on Friday were cancelled, along with 171 flights due to travel via land routes.

Meanwhile, flights at Berlin airport departed on or near schedule, German news agency dpa reported, citing an airport spokesman.

Nineteen flights took off in the early hours of Saturday after authorities exempted them from the usual night-time flight ban.

An IT glitch caused 150 of the airport's 552 scheduled flights in and out of the country to be cancelled on Friday, disrupting the plans of thousands of passengers at the start of the German capital's summer holiday season.

German hospitals gradually restoring systems after widespread cancellations

BERLIN — Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital in northern Germany canceled all elective surgeries on Friday due to a global IT outage, but said on Saturday it was gradually restoring its systems.

In a statement on its website, the company expected operations at its two branches in Kiel and Lübeck to return to normal by Monday and that “elective surgeries can be carried out as planned and ambulance services can resume.”

Britain's transport system is still trying to get back on track

LONDON – Britain's travel and transport industry is struggling to get back on schedule after a global security shutdown, facing flight cancellations and delays as many school pupils mark the first day of their summer holidays.

Gatwick Airport said the “vast majority” of scheduled flights were due to take off, while Manchester Airport said passengers were being checked in manually and flights could be cancelled at the last minute.

The Port of Dover said it was seeing an influx of evacuated air passengers, with people facing wait times of up to an hour just to enter the port to board a ferry to France.

Meanwhile, the UK's National Cyber ​​Security Centre warned individuals and businesses to be vigilant as “malicious actors” may exploit the outage to launch phishing attacks.

Ciarán Martin, former director of the National Cyber ​​Security Centre, said the worst of the crisis was over. “The nature of the crisis meant that things escalated quickly. It was quickly discovered and effectively stopped.”

He told Sky News that while some businesses would be able to return to normal quickly, other sectors such as aviation would take longer.

“When you're in aviation, you've got people, planes, staff all stranded in the wrong place. So it's going to take days. I'd be surprised if it takes weeks.”

German airlines expect most flights to operate normally

Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary Berlin Air said it planned to resume operations “broadly as planned” on Saturday.

A global IT outage forced airlines to cancel around 20% of flights, mostly domestic, on Friday, and passengers were urged to take trains instead.

“Online check-in, airport check-in, boarding procedures, booking and rebooking of flights are all now possible again,” the airline said in a statement on Saturday. “However, due to the widespread nature of the global IT disruptions, passengers may still experience sporadic disruptions,” it said.

Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates canceled hundreds of flights.

DALLAS: Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates had canceled more than a quarter of their East Coast schedules by mid-afternoon Friday, according to aviation data provider Cirium.

More than 1,100 flights on Delta Airlines and its affiliates were canceled.

United Airlines and United Express canceled more than 500 flights, or 12% of their total operations, while American Airlines' network canceled 450 flights, or 7.5% of its total operations.

Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines, which do not use the Crowdstrike software that caused the global internet outage, have canceled fewer than six flights each.

Portland, Oregon mayor declares emergency over power outages

Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of emergency on Friday after a global internet outage affected more than half of the city's computer systems.

Wheeler said at a news conference that emergency calls were not interrupted, but that dispatchers had to manually track 911 calls with pen and paper for several hours. He said 266 of the city's 487 computer systems were affected.

Border crossings into the U.S. are delayed

SAN DIEGO – People trying to enter the United States from both the north and south found border crossings delayed by internet outages.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, traffic was backed up at the San Ysidro immigration checkpoint on Friday morning, with pedestrians waiting up to three hours to get through.

Even cars carrying passengers approved for U.S. Customer and Border Protection's “Trusted Traveler” program, intended for low-risk passengers, were forced to wait up to 90 minutes. The program, called SENTRI, allows passengers to move through customs and passport control more quickly if they schedule an interview upon arrival in the U.S. and pass a background check.

Meanwhile, at the US-Canada border, Windsor police reported lengthy delays at the Ambassador Bridge and Detroit-Windsor Tunnel checkpoints.

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Source: Tech Outage Latest | Airlines, others rush to get back on track after global tech outage (July 21, 2024) Retrieved July 21, 2024 from https://techxplore.com/news/2024-07-tech-outage-latest-airlines-track.html

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