Crowdstrike, slow return to normality after the global chaos. But the damage is sensational –

Businesses and services around the world are slowly recovering from a massive outage that hit computer systems at businesses, banks, hospitals and airlines. The CEO of Crowdstrike, the cybersecurity firm that released a faulty software update for Microsoft Windows, apologized for the outage and said a fix had been released, but admitted it might be “some time” before all systems are back up and running. While some airports are starting to return to normal following thousands of flights were cancelled, operators expect some delays and cancellations to persist over the weekend. Many companies are now dealing with backlogs and missed orders that might take days to resolve. Health services in Britain, Israel and Germany have also suffered problems, with some operations cancelled.

The global chaos has raised concerns regarding the vulnerability of the world’s interconnected technologies and the widespread impact of a single software glitch. The problem began to manifest itself at 9 p.m. GMT on Thursday, affecting Windows users running the CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity software, although the full extent of the problem only became clear yesterday morning. By evening, the problems were easing in many parts of the world, with many airports returning to full flight operations despite ongoing problems with check-in and payment systems. JP Morgan Chase, the largest US bank, is still working to restore service to ATMs.

Kurtz’s comments regarding the flaw being found “in a single content update for Windows hosts” have fuelled concerns regarding the quasi-monopolistic management of some services and are now likely to call into question Crowdstrike’s influence as a major player in the cybersecurity market and the wisdom of having such a crucial part of the industry controlled by just a handful of companies. “We are deeply sorry for the impact that this has had on customers, travellers, anyone who has been affected, including our company,” Kurtz said, “it may take some time for some systems not to automatically recover.” Crowdstrike’s fix will also have to be applied separately to each affected device. The company’s shares have fallen around 12% to rivals SentinelOne and Palo Alto Networks. The outage is also thought to have long-term effects as companies struggle to pay salaries to staff, particularly where payments are made on a weekly basis.