NEW YORK (AP) — A faulty software update caused Tech upheaval around the world On Friday, planes were grounded, financial firms and some news organizations were shut down and hospitals, small businesses and government agencies were disrupted.
Extent of the outage revealed Vulnerabilities in a digital world For core computing services, we rely on just a few providers.
The problem was caused by an update released by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, and only affected its customers who use Microsoft Windows, the world’s most popular PC operating system. CrowdStrike said it was not the result of a hack or cyberattack, and the company apologized and said a fix was on the way.
Businesses and governments around the world experienced hours of disruption, with computer monitors flashing blue with error messages, and scrambled to deal with the fallout, with CrowdStrike’s CEO saying some systems would require time-consuming manual fixes.
Thousands of flights were canceled and tens of thousands were delayed, causing long lines at airports across the United States, Europe and Asia, and airlines left check-in and reservation services inaccessible at the height of the summer travel season.
Several local television stations across the U.S. were blocked from broadcasting the news early Friday, and some state and local governments reported problems at offices including courts, motor vehicle offices, unemployment insurance offices and emergency call centers.
Affected hospitals had problems with their booking systems, forcing them to suspend patient appointments and cancel some surgeries.
Allison Bauros said her family was left fearful and anxious after her 73-year-old father’s scheduled heart surgery for Friday morning in Paducah, Kentucky, was canceled due to technical difficulties.
“It brings home to me how much we rely on technology and how scary that can be,” Bauros said in an interview. Bauros said her father is waiting to find out what happens next at Baptist Hospital. A phone message left with the hospital wasn’t immediately returned.
Travelers line up at Brussels International Airport in Brussels, Friday, July 19, 2024. (AP/Harry Nakos)
American Express said it had experienced a temporary disruption in processing transactions, while TD Bank responded to online complaints by saying it was working to “restore” customers’ ability to access their accounts.
Elsewhere, Starbucks orders didn’t work properly, causing minor inconveniences such as long lines at some of the coffee chain’s locations.
In New York City’s Times Square, several large digital billboards displayed the blue “Recovery” screen that appears on laptops just before 12:30 a.m. Some were darkened by Friday afternoon.
An ominous reminder of vulnerability
Cyber expert James Boa said the damage would be real. “All of these systems run on the same software,” Boa said. “We’ve made these tools so pervasive that when things inevitably go wrong, and as we’ve seen, they will, the problems will be massive.”
“We can’t expect a quick solution,” said Claudia Plattner, head of Germany’s IT security agency. It was hard to predict exactly when all systems would be restored, but “it shouldn’t take more than a few hours,” she added.
CrowdStrike said in a recording on its customer service line that the issue was related to one of its products, Falcon Sensor, which it uses to block online attacks. The company said it has 29,000 customers.
Cyber expert James Boa said on Friday that repairing the global technology outage “is going to take some time” as flights, banks, media and businesses around the world continue to face disruptions.
In an interview with NBC’s “Today Show,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologized, saying, “We’re deeply sorry for the impact this has had on our customers, on travelers and on all those affected by this, including our company.”
“We know what the problem is” and are working on a solution, Kurtz said, but noted it could take “some time” for customers, especially those without in-house expertise.
CrowdStrike updates are automated, but fixes require manual steps such as deleting corrupted files and could take several days or longer for some customers, said Allie Melen, an analyst at Forrester.
“This poses even bigger problems given that CrowdStrike has a huge number of customers, Fortune 500 customers, and probably millions of (computers) under their control,” Mellen said. “This is going to be a long and difficult process.”
In Alaska, the state court system was back up and running after a 12-hour repair effort, spokeswoman Rebecca Kofort said. In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds said the state’s critical technology systems were back up and running by mid-afternoon.
Shares of Austin, Texas-based CrowdStrike fell nearly 10% on Friday. Microsoft shares fell more than 3%.
While the impact of the power outage could be widespread, forecasting firm Capital Economics sees the impact on the global economy as small.
Cybersecurity experts said people affected by the outage should also be wary of bad actors contacting them claiming to be able to help. “Attackers will certainly target organizations as a result of this,” said Eric Grenier, an analyst at Gartner.
Flights delayed in various locations
Most airlines blamed the problems on their reservation systems. Thousands of flights were affected in the US alone, but by late morning, East Coast airlines said they had mitigated the issues and had begun to resume some service, though it will take time to unclog the systems.
At Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, Sarah Schafer was delayed arriving at her cousin’s 50th birthday party in Florida. She had been waiting for nearly three hours with no idea when her flight would be rebooked.
“He seems calm,” said Schafer, who uses a cane because of an ankle injury, “but his anger may be coming out.”
British airlines and trains experienced long wait times, and airports across Europe grounded flights or halted takeoffs for hours because of difficulties checking passengers in.
Saskia Ettinghaus, a member of Germany’s Olympic diving team, was among those stranded at Berlin airport.
“We were on our way to Paris for the Olympics but for now we’re stuck here,” Ettinghaus said.
Broadcasting station loses power, surgery is delayed, ‘blue screen of death’
In Australia, national news stations including the ABC and Sky News Australia were offline for hours, with some news anchors broadcasting from darkened offices in front of computers showing blue error screens.
In the US, KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Missouri, announced on its website that it was broadcasting Scripps News instead of local news until about 5:35 a.m. Other local Scripps stations have reported similar issues, but Scripps spokesman Michael Perry said early Friday that 90 percent of stations were able to broadcast local news.
Problems have also been reported in hospitals in various countries.
Britain’s National Health Service said the outage affected booking and patient record systems, causing problems at most clinics.
A spokesman for Massachusetts General Hospital-Brigham, the state’s largest health system, said all non-urgent surgeries, procedures and appointments scheduled for Friday were canceled because of the power outage.
International shipping was also disrupted in some areas.
The main container hub in the Baltic Sea port city of Gdansk said it was grappling with problems, while marine terminals in the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were affected but there were no major disruptions from the outage.
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Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok, McHugh from Frankfurt and Graham McRae from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press reporters around the world contributed.
