Windows Global IT Outage: What We Know So Far

Businesses and institutions around the world have been severely impacted by a global IT outage. In the UK, GP surgeries reported difficulties accessing patient records and booking appointments. Sky News was offline for a few hours but has since resumed broadcasting. Britain’s largest rail company warned passengers of disruption due to “widespread IT issues”.

Globally, banks, supermarkets and other large institutions have faced IT issues, disrupting services. Some airlines have reported flight delays and cancellations. Here’s what we know so far:

1. What did the Windows outage affect?

Companies such as banks, telecommunications companies, TV and radio stations and supermarkets around the world have reported IT problems. In the US, airlines such as American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines have had flights grounded. Airports in Germany and Spain have also reported problems.

At Edinburgh airport, automated boarding scanners went offline, forcing people to manually check boarding passes. Many flights at Stansted displayed “please wait” notices on the boards inside. Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport confirmed a global system failure, affecting flights to and from the airport. Berlin’s Brandenburg airport warned of check-in delays due to technical issues.

In the US, 911 emergency lines in Alaska went down due to the technology outage. In the UK, Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern rail services faced widespread IT problems. The London Stock Exchange reported technical issues, preventing news from being published on its website, although other services continued to operate normally.

The NHS booking system used by doctors in England also went offline. Sky News was unable to broadcast live TV on Friday morning, but much of its news coverage was still available online. Several European airlines, including Turkish Airlines, KLM, Eurowings, Swiss International Air Lines and Wizz Air, reported technical challenges, resulting in longer check-in times and delayed or cancelled flights.

In Australia, flight screens at Sydney and other airports went blank, with Virgin Australia warning of cancellations and delays. Melbourne Airport confirmed Jetstar was facing significant disruption, while Qantas and Virgin were processing passengers slowly. Jetstar and Singapore-based Scoot also faced issues.

In the banking sector, Commonwealth Bank confirmed that some PayID transactions were affected, and ANZ customers also reported issues with transfers.

2. Where were companies affected?

Problems have been reported in several countries including India, the US, Europe, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

3. How widespread is IT disruption?

The cause of the outage is still being investigated, but it appears to be affecting Windows PCs globally. IT security firm CrowdStrike reported issues with its Falcon sensor, which is used to prevent cyberattacks on computer systems. The company said Windows systems were “experiencing a bugcheck/blue screen error related to the Falcon sensor” and that its teams were working to resolve the issue.

CrowdStrike President George Kurtz said the issue was caused by a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.” He stressed that this is not a security incident or cyberattack and that a fix has already been deployed.

The UK Ministry of Defence monitored the situation and was not affected, with no evidence of hostile actor involvement. UK Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said government departments were working together to understand the nature of the disruption and respond appropriately and quickly. Government officials have indicated that they are not treating the incident as a cyber attack by hostile or criminal states.

With information from The Guardian