Massive cyber outage reported in several countries

George Kurtz, the CEO of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said IT disruptions around the world were not a result of a security incident or cyberattack. 

The company "is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts," Kurtz said on X, formerly Twitter.  

"This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," he added. 

The tech outage appeared to be related to issues at global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and Microsoft. 

CrowdStrike's shares were down 20% in pre-market trading on Wall Street on Friday.

Microsoft's cloud computing platform Azure is believed to be the source of the global tech disruptions that have impacted airlines, media outlets and financial institutions.

The company said it was aware of the specific problem in a statement, several hours after the first reports of outages.

"We have been made aware of an issue impacting Virtual Machines running Windows, running the CrowdStrike Falcon agent, which may encounter a bug check (BSOD) and get stuck in a restarting state," it said.

It added that it was "currently investigating potential options Azure customers can take for mitigation."

Cybersecurity agencies in the UK and France have both said the global IT outage on Friday was in all probability not caused by a cyberattack.

A UK government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said British cybersecurity experts were not treating it as a malicious act.

The French cyber agency also said there is "no evidence" that the outage was caused by cyber criminality.

"The teams are fully mobilized to identify and support the affected entities in France and to understand ... the origin of this outage," the national cybersecurity agency (ANSSI) said, adding "There is no evidence to suggest that this outage is the result of a cyberattack."

US tech giant Microsoft has said it is taking "mitigation actions" to resolve problems with its services.

The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) said that major US airlines, including Delta, United and American Airlines, had grounded all of their flights amid the IT outage.

"All... flights regardless of destination" were grounded due to the "communication issues," the FAA said in a notice to airlines.

The widespread disruption is taking place during the nighttime in the US, potentially limiting the fallout of the tech disruptions.

The Paris Olympics' organizing committee said its IT operations have been affected by the global cyber outage, with just one week to go before the Games begin in the French capital on July 26.  

"We have activated contingency plans in order to continue operations," the committee said in a statement, without immediately giving details on the problems it was experiencing.

Spain's Aena, the world's largest airport operator based on passanger numbers, said it was recovering some of its systems after being hit by the global tech outage.

"All airports are operative, but some processes are working with delays," it said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

An earlier statement by the company said that the disruptions were mostly affecting check-in and passenger information points.

The Spanish state owns 51% of Aena which runs more than 60 airports, 46 of which are in Spain. It is the largest global operator in terms of passengers served, in large part due to the number of tourists visiting Spain every year.

Berlin airport has halted all flights until 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) due to a technical fault, a spokesperson told Reuters news agency on Friday.

The airport operator BER had earlier said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that check-ins were delayed due to the error.

Germany's flagship airline Lufthansa also said it was experiencing problems with bookings.

"Currently, the profile and booking retrieval functionality may be limited. We are working on a solution and apologize for any inconvenience caused," the company said in a statement on its website.

Amsterdam Schipol Airport in the Netherlands has also said it is affected by a cyber outage, telling travelers wanting to travel on Friday to contact their airline.

Dutch airline KLM announced that it had suspended a large part of its operations due to the IT outage.

"KLM, like other airlines and airports, has also been affected by the global computer outage, making it impossible to handle flights," the company said. "For now, we are forced to suspend most of the operation."

Belgian media said baggage check-in at Brussels airport was affected as well.

The University Clinic in Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) has also been hit by the global IT outage, according to a statement on the hospital's website.

Elective surgeries in both of its locations — Kiel and Lübeck — were canceled for Friday. Outpatient clinics were also closed.

"The treatment of patients at the UKSH is ensured, as are emergency services," it added.

The UK Sky News channel was once again broadcasting several hours after the widespread IT outage took it off the air.

"Sky News has not been able to broadcast live TV this morning, we apologise for the interruption," a spokesperson for the company told PA news agency earlier in the day.

"We are working hard to restore all services."

Australian broadcaster ABC was facing a similar outage.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE), a major global financial institution, has also been affected by Friday's technical glitch, the LSE company said in a statement.

A message on the website said the news feed "is currently experiencing a third-party global technical issue, preventing news from being published."

"Technical teams are working to restore the service. Other services across the group, including London Stock Exchange, continue to operate as normal."

The FTSE 100 Index opened 20 minutes later than usual.

Three Indian airlines have announced problems with the booking systems connected with the Microsoft issues.

"Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage," budget carrier IndiGo said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, with airlines Akasa Air and SpiceJet also reporting technical issues.

US tech giant Microsoft has said it is taking "mitigation actions" after service disruptions caused by technical failures across the world.

"Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions," the company said in a post on social media platform X.

Microsoft said users "may be unable to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services."

"We remain committed in treating this event with the highest priority and urgency while we continue to address the lingering impact for the remaining Microsoft 365 apps that are in a degraded state," it said.

Despite the announcement by Microsoft, there is a growing number of reports of disruption from across the world.

A number of companies in Australia were hit on Friday by what the country's cyber-security authority said was a "large-scale technical outage."  

"Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies," the office of Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness said in a statement.

"There is no information to suggest it is a cyber security incident. We continue to engage across key stakeholders," the statement on X, formerly Twitter, said.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs said that the outage seemed to have to do with a problem at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, but this was not mentioned in McGuiness's statement.

Among the bodies affect are national broadcaster ABC and Sky News Australia.

tj/fb (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)