Global IT outages hit airlines and businesses worldwide [Updated 14:19]

One of the company’s main products is CrowdStrike Falcon, described on its website as a platform “providing real-time indicators of attack, hyper-accurate detection and automated protection” from possible cybersecurity threats.

Dubai airport resumes normal operations

Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest aviation hubs, resumed its normal operations following global IT outages, the airport announced on Friday.

“We’re now back to operating normally following a global system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines in Terminals 1 and 2 this morning,” the airport said in a post on X.

Government affected: But the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that a global technical issue has affected some of its electronic systems, including its attestation service.

“We advise all clients to refrain from conducting any transactions until this issue is resolved,” the ministry said in a post on X.

Crowdstrike CEO says working with customers on global outage and fix has been deployed

Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz said that the IT issue causing a global outage has been identified and that a fix has been deployed.

Kurtz said the cybersecurity company is “actively working with customers” hit by the outage and that the issue was “not a security incident or cyberattack.”

Here’s his full statement:

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”

American Airlines has “safely re-established” operations impacted by outages

American Airlines has resolved a technical issue that impacted their services Friday morning, the airline said. 

“Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” the airline said in a statement to CNN.

UK’s National Health Service says outages are causing disruption in most GP practices

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) said the IT outages have affected most GP practices in England, but there is no known impact on emergency services.

“The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with a GP appointment and patient record system,” NHS England said Friday.

It said it has “long standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records.”

NHS England encouraged people to use emergency services “as they usually would.”

Customer information systems at North America’s largest transportation network temporarily offline

The global tech outage has caused some Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) customer information systems to go temporarily offline Friday morning, according to officials. 

“Train and bus service is unaffected,” the MTA said in a post. “Please listen for announcements in your station, on your train, or on your bus.”

The MTA is North America’s largest transportation network, according to its website, and serves a population of 15.3 million people.

What is CrowdStrike and is it linked to the outage?

Founded in 2011, CrowdStrike sells Falcon to big corporations and government clients, including major global banks, healthcare and energy companies, according to the company.

It has so far not addressed the ongoing outage possibly linked to its software. CNN has reached out to CrowdStrike for comment.

“CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company. It runs (a) variety of enterprise pieces of software for endpoint malware detection. It’s kind of like antivirus, essentially, but usually, for corporate systems, usually not people to home PCs,” Jeffrey L. Foster, an associate professor in at Macquarie University in Australia, told CNN.

The global IT outage appears to have been caused by an issue with the CrowdStrike antivirus software, according to professor Salil Kanhere, from the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

“It appears to have impacted Windows machines with this software installed, causing them to crash (blue screen error) and get stuck in boot loops,” Kanhere said.

“An update to their software appears to have been rolled out globally without proper testing.”

Australian prime minister activates National Coordination Mechanism to deal with tech outages

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the National Coordination Mechanism has been activated to deal with the ongoing tech outages.

“I understand Australians are concerned about the outage that is unfolding globally and affecting a wide range of services,” the prime minister said on X, adding that “there is no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or Triple-0 services at this stage.”

The NCM brings together different government agencies – state and territory – as well as industry and private sector stakeholders to coordinate a large-scale response to crises, and was first activated in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Malaysian stock exchange experiencing disruptions

Malaysia’s Bursa Malaysia Bhd stock exchange is experiencing tech outages.

Bursa Malaysia Bhd also said the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI index value feed is “experiencing service disruption” and that the company is investigating the matter, according to Malaysia’s national news agency Bernama.

The country’s largest railway operator, KTM Berhad, said its ticketing system and all customer service channels were facing disruptions “due to Crowdstrike Microsoft Windows,” and that it was working to restore services.

Asian airlines hit by tech disruption 

Asian airlines AirAsia, Cebu Pacific Air and Singapore Airlines have all been hit by the ongoing global tech disruption, the airlines said on their respective social media channels. 

AirAsia said in a post on X that, “Our core reservation and check-in system are impacted by Microsoft’s cloud services outage affecting airlines worldwide.”  

Cebu Pacific Air said it was forced to handle all processes manually due to the outage.

Singapore Airlines noted on X that none of its flights have been impacted, but that it is experiencing technical difficulties.

Six Indian airlines and Delhi airport impacted by tech disruptions

Six Indian airlines are experiencing issues with online services due to problems with their service providers, as large-scale tech outages hit airlines and businesses around the world.

• IndiGo, one of India’s major airlines, said on Friday that their systems across the network were impacted by an ongoing issue with Microsoft Azure, resulting in increased wait times at contact centers and airports.
• Indian low-cost airlines SpiceJet, Air India Express, and Akasa Air are also experiencing technical challenges with their service providers, affecting online services such as booking, check-in and trip-management services.
• India’s largest airline Air India also said on Friday that its digital systems have been impacted temporarily due to the current Microsoft outage, resulting in delays.
• Vistara, an international airline based in Delhi, said it is facing technical challenges across “various aspects of our operations due to a global outage at our service provider’s end.”
• New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport said on Friday some of their services were temporarily impacted “due to the global IT issue,” requesting passengers to be in touch with the airline concerned.

Which airlines and businesses have been affected by the global tech outage?

Tech disruptions around the world have left flights grounded, businesses struggling with IT issues, and customers unable to access tech services. Here are some companies affected so far:

• All flights have been grounded for United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines. The Federal Aviation Administration cited communication issues and did not say how long the “ground stop” would last.
• Allegiant Airlines flights were also grounded. Earlier on Thursday, Allegiant said its website was unavailable due to an issue with Microsoft Azure, the tech giant’s cloud software.
• Microsoft said Friday it was investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services. Earlier on Thursday, it said on its Azure status report site that the service had gone down for some customers in the United States, adding it had determined the cause and is working to fix it.
• Other global airlines including Virgin Australia and Qantas have been impacted by IT disruptions, saying they are still operating but with delays.
• Airports in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney are experiencing similar disruptions, though flights are still arriving and departing.
  Australian banking and telecoms institutions such as ANZ, Westpac, Visa, and Optus have also been impacted, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks cyber outages.
• Chinese Microsoft customers are seeing a “blue screen” with an error message, popularly known as the BSOD (blue screen of death), Microsoft confirmed Friday.
• The London Stock Exchange said its news service is experiencing “a third-party global technical issue,” preventing news from being published on its website. The company’s other services, including the exchange itself, continue to operate as normal, it added.
  Other businesses impacted include Australian supermarket chains, state police, its national broadcaster, and New Zealand banks.

Global outages affect European travel

Mass tech outages worldwide have caused IT systems to shut down, sparking delays and issues at European airports as well as affecting other transport links.

London’s Gatwick Airport said it is “affected by the global Microsoft issues” and that passengers may experience delays checking in and going through security.

Germany’s Berlin Airport said that it is experiencing delays to check-in due to a “technical fault.” 

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport said the “global system failure” had affected “flights to and from Schiphol” and the impact is “now being mapped.”

Scotland’s Edinburgh Airport said IT systems outages mean “wait times are longer than usual at the airport.” Teams are on hand to assist while the airport works to resolve its issues, it said.

Ryanair also confirmed a disruption to the airline’s network, advising passengers to arrive at least three hours before their scheduled departure time. 

Trains in the UK are also having issues, with Thameslink, a mainline route on the British railway saying: “Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem.”

UK's Sky News unable to broadcast

Sky News, a major television news channel in the UK, was unable to broadcast live on Friday morning.

The network’s executive chairman David Rhodes apologized to viewers for the interruption, saying many news reports are still available online.

Singapore's famed Changi airport facing IT disruption 

Singapore’s famed Changi airport, often named the world’s best airport, is facing IT disruptions, according to a post on its Facebook page.

“Due to a global outage affecting the IT systems of many organisations, the check-in process for some airlines at Changi Airport is being managed manually,” the airport said.

It’s among a number of airports around the world currently facing tech disruptions, including in Europe and Australia.

Changi handles 95 million passengers per year, and topped Skytrax’s list of best airports for eight years in a row – before dropping a few spots during the pandemic, and reclaiming its crown last year.

Worldwide tech malfunction disrupts Israeli health service

A “widespread worldwide” computer malfunction is affecting hospitals and other health services in Israel, the country’s health ministry said in a statement Friday.

“This is not a cyber attack but a malfunction” in one piece of software, affecting “servers and computers,” the ministry said.

Tech outages are causing disruption globally, with airports and media outlets affected across Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region.