A major technology outage affecting Microsoft caused widespread disruption across various industries globally on Friday, resulting in a significant increase in flight cancellations, banking interruptions, and operational challenges for media organisations and businesses.
The disruptions continued to escalate after Microsoft announced that it was gradually resolving an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services. DownDetector, a website that monitors user-reported internet outages, recorded increasing disruptions in services at Visa, ADT security, Amazon, and major airlines such as American Airlines and Delta.
In Australia, airlines, telecommunications providers, banks, and media broadcasters suffered severe disruptions due to loss of access to computer systems. The United Kingdom, Europe, and India also reported problems, with some New Zealand banks confirming that they were offline.
Microsoft 365 acknowledged on social media that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion,” observing a positive trend in service availability. However, the company did not provide further details regarding the cause of the outage.
David Seymour, Acting Prime Minister of New Zealand, expressed concern regarding the potential impacts of the global problem. He confirmed that there were no indications of malicious cyber security activity but acknowledged that the issue was causing inconvenience for the public and businesses.
Israel’s Cyber Directorate confirmed that the global outages were attributed to a problem with the cybersecurity platform Crowdstrike, affecting post offices and hospitals in the country. The disruption also led to widespread airport and airline disruptions.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States grounded major airlines including United, American, Delta, and Allegiant. In Los Angeles, stranded passengers were forced to sleep on the jetway floor due to a delayed United flight. Similarly, the United Kingdom experienced major disruptions in airline, railway, and television operations, affecting notable companies and services.
Australia faced severe airport disruptions as online check-in services and self-service booths were disabled, resulting in long queues and stranded passengers. India reported widespread disruption in airline operations, leading to inconvenience for thousands of passengers.
Major airports in Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Germany, and Switzerland were also affected, with the outage causing significant delays in flights to and from these destinations. Similarly, the issue impacted banking services in Australia and South Africa, resulting in nationwide service disruptions and the inability of customers to make payments.
The outage also affected hospitals in Britain and Germany. Several practices within the National Health Service in England reported that the outage had impacted their clinical computer systems, leading to the cancellation of elective surgeries. Australian news outlets like ABC and Sky News were unable to broadcast on their TV and radio channels, and sudden shutdowns of Windows-based computers were reported.
Additionally, at least one major bank in South Africa experienced nationwide service disruptions, with customers unable to make payments using their bank cards. The New Zealand banks ASB and Kiwibank also reported technical difficulties with their services.
The situation was compounded by a screenshot of an alert from cybersecurity company Crowdstrike, indicating reports of crashes on Windows hosts related to its Falcon Sensor platform. However, Crowdstrike did not respond to a request for comment.
In conclusion, the significant worldwide disruptions caused by the widespread technology outage have highlighted the vulnerability of global systems to unexpected challenges, impacting crucial sectors such as travel, finance, healthcare, and media. The incident serves as a reminder of the importance of robust infrastructure and swift intervention to mitigate such disruptions in the future.