As of noon today, operations in the national financial system, foreign trade and tax administration are taking place normally in Guatemala, according to the sources consulted, following one of the biggest computer failures in recent years caused incidents around the world, affecting airlines, railway companies, banks and telecommunications companies.
The failure, which was apparently caused by an antivirus software update, has also affected the “computer operations” of the Paris Olympics, the organizing committee of the event announced, one week before the opening ceremony on July 26.
Finance system
Fernando Samayoa Delgado, president of the Guatemalan Banking Association (ABG), explained: “First of all, it should be clarified that the cybersecurity tool, called Crowdstrike, was the one that had a failure when it was updated. It is used by numerous companies to stop security breaches and protect themselves once morest digital threats.
The recent flaw is specifically identified in the company’s Falcon sensor update, which runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems. The company issued and published a message stating that it was aware of reports of Windows crashes related to its Falcon sensor.
The flaw has caused significant disruptions to IT systems worldwide. Early this morning, numerous devices running Microsoft’s Windows operating system began to experience errors.
The outage affected multiple sectors, including banks, airports, television stations, telecom systems and hotels, among others. Problems were reported in Australia, followed by similar reports from the UK, India, Germany, the Netherlands and the US.
A few hours following the incident, Crowdstrike’s engineering team rolled back the update that caused the problem and has published the steps to follow to avoid it. It is important to note that the inconvenience referred to is not a cybersecurity attack or incident,” he said.
Regarding the situation observed in the Guatemalan banking system, it should be noted that the necessary consultations have been carried out and it has been established that today the banking and financial entities began their operations with complete normality, following having, in some cases, overcome certain inconveniences that arose in them due to the situation described above.
“The necessary consultations have been carried out and it has been established that today the banking and financial institutions began their operations with complete normality”
Fernando Samayoa Delgado, President of the Banking Association of Guatemala
“With regard to the protocols that must be observed in situations such as the one described, banks and financial institutions in their daily work comply with the provisions issued, among others, by the Superintendency of Banks, such as the Regulation for the Administration of Technological Risk, as well as carefully observe their internal policies and procedures that they must legally and prudently implement, so that the services they provide to their clients and the general population are not interrupted by circumstances such as the one that arose today,” he added.
For its part, the Superintendency of Banks (SIB) confirmed that “as part of its surveillance and inspection work, it continuously monitors the provision of financial services by the Guatemalan banking system.
Regarding the failure derived from the CrowdStrike software (Falcon Sensor), which affected several Microsoft operating systems worldwide, at this time no banking institution has reported incidents that affect the provision of said services through the various customer service channels.”
Central Bank and SAT
Álvaro González Ricci, president of the Bank of Guatemala (Banguat) explained this morning that, in the case of the central bank, everything is operating in order.
“There was a global computer failure that is affecting hospitals, airports, etc. In the case of Banguat, we do not have any equipment or system affected, everything is normal, including the payment system,” he stressed.
Érick Echeverría, Tax Collection Superintendent of the Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT), reported that during the morning they have been monitoring the expected transactions and no anomalies have occurred.
Regarding foreign trade declarations – imports and exports – users reported that yesterday there was a server failure, which was only somewhat unstable, but that the system returned to normal to carry out operations.
Affects global operations
The failure had repercussions on Friday in Italy, where, among other problems, there were delays and cancellations of flights at airports and losses on several stock exchanges.
The problems associated with the Microsoft software failure have also affected railway stations and banks, as well as airlines such as Ita Airways, which announced the delay or cancellation of some of its flights scheduled for this Friday. Meanwhile, Italy’s motorway system has activated the emergency protocol “to guarantee operational activity” and the functioning of the road network.
“There was a worldwide computer failure that is affecting hospitals, airports, etc. In the case of Banguat, we do not have any equipment or system affected, everything is normal, including the payment system.”
Alvaro Gonzalez Ricci, President of the Bank of Guatemala
The situation created data updating problems on the Milan Stock Exchange, which in the morning recorded a drop of more than 0.6% in its selective FTSE MIB index and losses in companies such as Nexi (2.62%), the car manufacturer Iveco Group (2.39%), the car producer Stellantis (1.87%) or the energy company ENI (1.44%).
Following an initial interruption, the Milan stock exchange’s activities have resumed, and the stock exchange itself announced that it is once once more operating “regularly, like all Euronext offices.”
Fiumicino Airport, Rome’s largest, said its computer system was not affected, but said “delays and cancellations are occurring on incoming and outgoing flights” due to the global disruption.
Meanwhile, Wall Street began its day slightly down, awaiting the computer failure affecting companies, following opening on Friday slightly down and the Dow Jones losing 0.54%.
With information from EFE and AFP
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