Dozens of companies and services around the world have been shut down or severely disrupted after a computer outage in a cybersecurity system affecting the use of Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Australian banks, British media, European airlines, health services, airports and supermarkets in all latitudes have already reported being affected and their systems inaccessible.
British and French state cyber security agencies have ruled out the possibility of this being a cyber attack. According to industry sources, Including The Portuguese National Cyber Security Center said the outage appeared to be a false update Software Falcon from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. In a pre-recorded phone message on its tech support line, the company said it was “aware of reports of sensor-related failures in Microsoft’s Windows operating system.” Hawk“.
CrowdStrike’s executive chairman George Kurtz, X (formerly of Twitter) took responsibility for the outage. “This is not a security incident or a cyber attack,” he assured. “The problem has been identified, isolated and a solution has already been released,” he added, assuring that the company is “fully prepared to guarantee the security and stability” of its customers.
Microsoft, which promised it was taking “mitigation measures,” announced that it had started detecting problems on the US East Coast (midnight in Lisbon) on Thursday afternoon. Many Windows system users face blue screen, which is known as BSoD in slang, which corresponds to a serious error. The blackout will not affect anyone using Mac or Linux systems.
Airports and Amadora-Sintra problems
In Portugal, ANA, which manages airports, says the computer outage is causing “restrictions”. Check in and boarding certain flights” and urges passengers to “inform themselves of the status of their flight before proceeding to the airport”.
“Some airlines, handlers And companies in the sector have been affected by computer outages. The IT system at Portuguese airports was not directly affected. The impact of this situation is being assessed, and restrictions on airport operations affecting airlines and other airports are expected,” ANA said in a note to PÚBLICO.
The Amadora-Sintra hospital reported some problems to the shared services of the Ministry of Health, which, according to Lusa, is assessing the extent of the situation and conducting a survey of possible situations. So far, this is the only health sector affected. INEM and 112 are functioning normally, as are justice-related services.
Confusion at airports and transfers
In the US, several airlines grounded flights and the US state of Alaska warned that its emergency services were affected and telephone lines were not working properly.
London Stock Exchange is one of the affected companies site to show Last night’s values as negotiations began this Friday. The medical appointment scheduling system used by doctors in the UK is also not working. Sky News was only able to air its television coverage midway through and says UK rail services have also been affected, causing dozens of train departures to be delayed. London’s main airports and the port of Dover are experiencing disruptions.
Two hospitals in the northern German cities of Lübeck and Kiel have canceled scheduled non-emergency operations for Friday, hospital sources said in a statement, while patient care and emergency services continued to operate as normal.
In Spain, airports are operating but there are reports of chaos in Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca with significant delays. Dozens of flights from Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Prague and Berlin have difficulty taking off. Berlin airport suspended all departures until 10 a.m. due to a technical problem, a spokeswoman told Reuters. Earlier, the airport operator announced Check-ins They suffered huge delays due to computer outages.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest airports, was also reported to have suffered a “global internet outage”. “This disruption is having an impact on flights to and from Schiphol,” a spokesman said, adding that it was not yet known how many flights were affected. Several airlines in India, Hong Kong and Japan also reported being hit by IT outages.
Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline, spoke of “disruption across its entire network” and asked passengers to arrive at airports three hours before departure.
From the Americas to Oceania
Downdetector, a website that logs internet outages in real time, shows some Portuguese operators such as NOS and MEO recording outages in their services starting at 8am this Friday. An official source from Vodafone Portugal told PÚBLICO that “there is no disruption in its network, all parameters are operating normally”.
In Australia, Average, the services of banks and telecom companies have been disrupted. At Sydney Airport, departure and arrival information disappeared from the screens. In a notification to passengers at one of the domestic terminals, the airline Low price Jetstar said the “problem with Microsoft” was not being able to build it Check in According to the BBC, passengers and more start boarding flights. According to the British broadcaster, Australian stores such as Woolworths have users reporting queues on social media and their payment systems are inactive.
Commonwealth Bank, Australia’s largest bank, said some customers were unable to move money due to service disruptions. In New Zealand, a parliamentary spokesman said systems were also affected, and state broadcaster ABC said it was dealing with a “major network outage” without giving a reason for the failure.
According to the downdetector, since last night, a sudden spike in incidents has been recorded in many places Websites This includes Microsoft applications.
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