Massive technological failure! Major airlines, media outlets, companies including Amazon and Visa, and police forces around the world were hit by a massive computer outage caused by a problem with cloud computing services from Microsoft and cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike on Friday morning.
Airline flights around the world were suspended in several countries, and businesses, broadcasters and newscasts in several countries were taken offline after their technological systems were disrupted.
Massive technological failure affects airports
Airlines, including American AirlinesDelta Airlines and United Airlines issued groundings on Friday morning citing communication issues, less than an hour after Microsoft fixed the glitch, according to Reuters. Sydney Airport, one of Australia’s largest, reported serious delays.
“This is not a security incident or a cyberattack,” CrowdStrike said in a statement.
911 fails in US media
In the US, Alaska State Troopers said in a Facebook update just before 2:20 a.m. that 911 and non-emergency phone numbers across the state were down, “due to a nationwide technology outage.”
The outage has affected media outlets including Telemundo and NBC News. Telemundo’s 5 a.m. newscasts were experiencing live broadcast issues. Sky News, NBC News’ sister British broadcaster, is unable to broadcast live news.
Users have reported seeing a blue screen when trying to boot their computers. The bug appears to have wreaked havoc on supermarket checkouts and countless websites.
“Sky News has been unable to broadcast live television this morning and is currently telling viewers that we apologise for the disruption. Much of our news reporting is still available online and we are working hard to restore all services,” Sky News chief executive David Rhodes said on X.
The magnitude of the fault in Europe and Australia
In Europe, Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport said there would be delays in passenger check-in “due to a technical failure”, and Aena, which runs 46 airports in Spain, said “an incident in the computer system” could cause delays.
Australian airports reported widespread problems, with long queues and stranded passengers due to the disabling of online check-in services and self-service kiosks. In Melbourne, travellers queued for more than an hour to check in.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport said on its website that the outage was having a “major impact on flights” to and from the busy European hub. The service disruption came on one of the busiest days of the year at the airport, at the start of many travellers’ summer holidays.
In Germany, Berlin airport said Friday morning that “due to a technical failure, there will be delays in check-in,” noting that it had suspended flights until 10 a.m., but did not provide further details, according to German news agency dpa.
At Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport, some planes bound for the United States were experiencing delays while others were unaffected.
WHAT MICROSOFT SAYS
Microsoft said the issue with its Azure service and Microsoft 365 apps, including services such as the Teams video conferencing app, had been fixed early Friday, but companies in the United States and Europe continued to report problems.
The company said “a small subset of services are still experiencing residual impact.”
Courtesy of Telemundo
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2024-07-22 23:34:00
