By Komfie Manalo
Banks stopped dispensing money from the Atlantic to the Pacific, flights were grounded, the media halted broadcasting, and communications services were disrupted in a global IT outage traced to CrowdStrike.
Immediately, the cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike apologized for the worldwide disruption caused by its software update.
"We're deeply sorry for the impact that we've caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies," George Kurtz said in an interview.
In the US, major airlines, including Delta, United, and American Airlines, ordered the grounding of all flights due to a communication glitch. Flights were also canceled at Berlin Brandenburg Airport in Germany due to a "technical problem."
Several airlines in Hong Kong reported disruption from the Microsoft outage and suspended some flights, while all airports in Spain experienced "disruptions."
In Australia, social media posts showed long queues at the Sydney Airport.
A spokesman for Sydney Airport said, "Flights are currently arriving and departing; however, there may be some delays throughout the evening. We have activated our contingency plans with our airline partners and deployed additional staff to our terminals to assist passengers."
Budget carriers Cebu Pacific and AirAsia Philippines also reported technical issues caused by the Microsoft global outage, prompting them to handle affected processes manually. '
In a statement, Philippine Department of Information and Communications Technology Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Renato Paraiso said the ICT Department, through its Cybersecurity Bureau and the National Computer Emergency Response Team, "is vigilantly monitoring the ongoing software outage.''
Struck by CrowdStrike
Ciaran Martin, former head of Britain's National Cyber Security Centre, described in an interview with BBC Radio that an update to a product offered by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike appeared to be affecting operating systems based on Microsoft's Windows Operating System.
Microsoft's cloud unit Azure said it was aware of the issue that impacted virtual machines running Windows OS and the CrowdStrike Falcon agent, which got stuck in a "restarting state" amid an ongoing global outage.
"We're aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming," a Microsoft spokesperson said.
According to an alert sent by CrowdStrike to its clients and reviewed by Reuters, the company’s "Falcon Sensor" software is causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known informally as the "Blue Screen of Death."
The alert, sent at 0530 GMT on Friday, also shared a manual workaround to rectify the issue.
The U.S. firm said in a promotional video this year that over half of Fortune 500 companies used CrowdStrike software.
Banks, financial services hit
Major banks in the Philippines reported customers' complaints of difficulty accessing their digital banking services due to technical issues caused by the IT outage.
New Zealand media said banks and computer systems inside the country's parliament reported issues.
There was no information to suggest the outage was a cyber security incident, the office of Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness said in a post on X. A British government source also told Reuters there was nothing to suggest foul play.
"The world grinding to a halt because of a global IT meltdown shows the dark side to technology," AJ Bell investment analyst Dan Coatsworth said.
"The severity of the problem boils down to how long it lasts. A few hours' disruption is unhelpful but not a catastrophe. Prolonged disruption is another matter," he said.
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