Global businesses, news stations, airlines, banks and financial markets were at a stand-still Friday after a massive worldwide tech outage caused a rippling disruptive effect on industries across the world.
Flights were cancelled, news broadcasters temporarily suspended on-air live streams, and telecommunications were disrupted amid the global chaos.
Here is what we know so far.
What caused the outage?
Multiple companies were quick to link the problem with tech giant Microsoft and a cyber security company called CrowdStrike, which helps companies with automated threat intelligence.
According to an alert sent by 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 alert, which was sent at 0530 GMT on Friday, also shared a manual workaround to rectify the issue.
UAE-based IT & IoT expert Mahmoud Alsharif told Al Arabiya English that “all available information indicates that a faulty update from CrowdStrike caused the outage.”
He added: “CrowdStrike has confirmed they are actively working to roll back the update, which eliminates suspicions of hacking or a deliberate attack.”
Alsharif noted the majority of CrowdStrike users are the ones affected adding that “there is no evidence suggesting that users not utilizing CrowdStrike have been affected.”
The issue appears to stem from an automatic update by the cybersecurity firm, according to the IT expert. He said users are left with the choice to roll back the update, if that’s possible, or to wait for the company to release a new update.
Despite it being a global issue, the outage is unlikely to directly impact the security of individuals, Alsharif told Al Arabiya English.
“It is unlikely that this outage will directly impact the security of individuals like the security of their personal bank accounts. However, it has raised significant concerns, particularly since major airlines and banks rely on CrowdStrike’s services for cybersecurity protection against threats.”
The CEO of CrowdStrike antivirus firm on Friday later confirmed a fix had been deployed for the bug that caused the global IT outage.
Who has been affected?
Problems were reported across the globe including the US, Australia, UK, wider Europe and even the Gulf.
News outlets in Australia reported that airlines, telecommunications providers and banks, and media broadcasters were disrupted as they lost access to computer systems. Some New Zealand banks said they were also offline. In the US, the FAA said the airlines United, American, Delta and Allegiant had all been grounded.
Airlines, railways and television stations in the United Kingdom were being disrupted by the computer issues.
The budget airline Ryanair, train operators TransPennine Express and Govia Thameslink Railway, as well as broadcaster Sky News were among those affected. Swiss International Air Lines said on Friday that its systems had not been impacted but Swiss flight operations have been affected due to disruptions at partner companies and air traffic control.
In Germany, two hospitals in the northern cities of Luebeck and Kiel cancelled elective operations scheduled for Friday, their operator said, because of the outages.
The Paris Olympics’ organizing committee also said that its IT operations has been impacted, just a week before the Games begin. “We have activated contingency plans in order to continue operations,” the organizing committee said in a statement Friday morning.
Employees at multiple companies across the globe took to social media platform on Friday to share an error message on their computer screens following the outage. Others reported difficulties at ATMs or with card transactions.
What about the Gulf?
In the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates foreign ministry said Friday that the global cyber outage had affected some its electronic systems and it advised users to avoid any transactions till the issue has been resolved.
The UAE advised users of the CrowdStrike software to hold off on any updates or downloads until outages linked to the cybersecurity software are rectified. It later on Friday said outages had been resolved.
At Dubai Airport, one of the biggest passenger terminals in the world, there were delays at check-ins at Terminal 1 and 2, because of the outages. This has since been rectified, according to a statement released on X.
“We are now back to operating normally following a global system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines in Terminals 1 and 2. The affected airlines promptly switched to an alternate system, allowing normal check-in operations to resume swiftly.”
Saudi Arabia’s low-cost airline Flynas also posted on X and confirmed its operations have been affected, leading to delays in take-offs of some flights, in addition to “slow services on the website and mobile application.”
“We apologize for the confusion caused by this global holiday that is beyond our control and we than them for their understanding of this emer-gency circumstance.”
What is Microsoft, CrowdStrike saying?
US tech giant Microsoft said Friday it was taking “mitigation actions” after the service disruptions.
“Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take miti-gation actions,” the company said in a post on social media platform X.
Microsoft’s cloud unit Azure also said on Friday it was aware of the issue that impacted virtual machines running the Windows OS and the CrowdStrike Falcon agent getting stuck in a “restarting state,” amid the ongoing global outage. The unit said it was currently investigating potential options its customers can take for mitigation.
The CEO of CrowdStrike said the problem was being resolved.
"“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts... The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” CEO George Kurtz said in a message on social media platform X.
