Global IT outage grounds flights, hits banks, media

SYDNEY — A major outage wreaked havoc on global computer systems yesterday, grounding flights in the United States, derailing television broadcasts in the UK and impacting telecommunications in Australia.

Major US air carriers including Delta, United and American Airlines grounded all flights yesterday over a communication issue, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Flights were suspended at Berlin Brandenburg airport in Germany due to a “technical problem,” a spokeswoman told AFP.

“There are delays to check in, and flight operations had to be canceled until 10 a.m.,” the spokeswoman said, adding that she could not say when they would resume.

All airports in Spain were experiencing “disruptions” from an IT outage that hit several companies worldwide yesterday, the airport operator Aena said.

Hong Kong’s airport also said some airlines had been affected, with its authority issuing a statement in which it linked the disruption to a Microsoft outage.

In the Philippines, some local airlines are facing technical issues due to the system outage. 

Cebu Pacific (CEB) and AirAsia Philippines advised passengers that they are currently experiencing technical issues, reportedly related to technology provider CrowdStrike.

“The technical issue requires us to handle affected processes manually, potentially causing delays. We are working closely with our teams to mitigate disruptions to our operations and will provide regular updates as the situation progresses. We appreciate your patience and understanding,” the CEB management stated.

AirAsia Philippines came out with a separate statement, saying a global outage affecting Microsoft services has been confirmed by its partner, Navitaire. 

It stated that the outage is causing unexpected rebooting of machines, leading to some operational disruptions related to check-in processes and navigating its AirAsia MOVE app. 

The UK’s biggest rail operator meanwhile warned of possible train cancellations due to IT issues, while photos posted online showed large queues forming at Sydney Airport in Australia.

“Flights are currently arriving and departing, however there may be some delays throughout the evening,” a Sydney Airport spokesman said.

“We have activated our contingency plans with our airline partners and deployed additional staff to our terminals to assist passengers.”

Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator said the “large-scale technical outage” was caused by an issue with a “third-party software platform,” adding there was no information as yet to suggest hacker involvement.

Sky News in the UK said the glitch had ended its morning news broadcasts, while Australian broadcaster ABC similarly reported a major “outage.”

Some self-checkout terminals at one of Australia’s largest supermarket chains were rendered useless, displaying blue error messages.

New Zealand media said banks and computer systems inside the country’s parliament were reporting issues.

Australian telecommunications firm Telstra suggested the outages were caused by “global issues” plaguing software provided by Microsoft and cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.

Problem solved

Crowdstrike has deployed a fix for the issue, the company’s CEO said yesterday.

Microsoft said separately it had fixed the underlying cause for the outage of its 365 apps and services including Teams and OneDrive, but residual impact was affecting some services.

“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz said in a post on social media platform X.

The issue stemmed from a defect found in a single content update for Microsoft Windows hosts, Kurtz said.

Mac and Linux hosts were not impacted by the issue, he added.

Crowdstrike’s “Falcon Sensor” software was causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known informally as the “Blue Screen of Death,” according to an alert sent by Crowdstrike earlier to its clients and reviewed by Reuters.

The travel industry was among the hardest hit with airports around the world reporting delays and issues with their system network, while banks and financial institutions from Australia and India to South Africa warned clients about disruptions to their services.

University of Melbourne expert Toby Murray previously said there were indications the problem was linked to a Crowdstrike Falcon.

“CrowdStrike is a global cyber security and threat intelligence company,” Murray said. “Falcon is what is known as an endpoint detection and response platform, which monitors the computers that it is installed on to detect intrusions (i.e. hacks) and respond to them.”

University of South Australia cybersecurity researcher Jill Slay said the global impact of the outages was likely to be “enormous.”

Airlines issue notice

“AirAsia Philippines is closely monitoring the situation and is in constant communication with Navitaire and Microsoft. Our top priority is to minimize any impact on our guests and ensure that all systems are restored to full functionality as soon as possible,” said AirAsia communications and public affairs head and First Officer Steve Dailisan.

The airline advised travelers to visit @flyairasiaph social media platforms and AirAsia newsroom and through their registered mobile phones and email accounts for flight updates.

CAAP is preparing for the increase in passengers waiting at airports, activating irregular operations protocols and closely coordinating with airlines, the PNP Aviation Security Group and Office for Transport Security.

More seating for passengers are being added, and personnel at the Malasakit Help desk and medical teams are on standby.

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines, meanwhile, said its technical systems are “not affected” by the issue, according to PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna. However, it remains unclear whether the airline was simply spared or its computers are running with a different operating system.

Information Assistant Secretary Renato Paraiso said the government is monitoring the impact on the Philippines of the Microsoft outage. He also clarified that the Department of Information and Communications Technology was unaffected by the disruptive glitch.

“We assure the public that the [DICT] does not use the same cybersecurity service provider and that no DICT systems or assets have been affected,” Paraiso said.