Hundreds of thousands of people have had their foreign summer holidays thrown into jeopardy by a global IT outage that caused chaos at British airports on Friday.
Around 200,000 people are set to be hit by delays and cancellations caused by the IT meltdown, which was triggered by a faulty update to a widely-used piece of cyber security software. Many travel insurers are refusing to pay to rearrange holidays.
NHS services, train services, cash machines and contactless payments were also taken offline, with 999 services facing long delays after GP surgeries were unable to make appointments.
The worldwide IT outage was caused by a glitch in cyber security software made by CrowdStrike, a US company, which caused millions of computers running Microsoft’s Windows to crash suddenly on Friday morning.
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It resulted in a so-called “blue screen of death”, sending the computers into recovery mode.
An emergency meeting of Cobra officials was called to address the chaos, and Louise Haigh, the Transport Secretary, said her department was “working at pace with industry and across Government on the issue”.
While most of the technical problems were resolved by Friday night, the impact on summer holidays is expected to last for days.
Friday was scheduled to be the busiest day at British airports since October 2019 as schools broke up for the summer holidays. After more than 4,295 flights were cancelled globally, passengers were hit with queues of more than three and a half hours.
Staff at airports from Heathrow to Bangkok were forced to manually check-in travellers after the technical glitch sent their systems into meltdown. Edinburgh Airport halted all arriving flights for around two hours on Friday as aircraft backed up on the Tarmac.
Meanwhile, Ryanair urged passengers to leave airports, saying: “If your flight has been cancelled, we kindly request that you leave the airport as the IT outage means we cannot currently assist passengers at the airport.”
Delta and United Airlines both imposed so-called ground stops on Friday morning, preventing flights from taking off while airline staff rushed to fix crippled computers.
The disruption is set to carry on into next week as airlines struggle to get aircraft and pilots back into position to run their scheduled services.
Passengers who have had their flights cancelled also face problems if trying to recoup lost costs from travel insurers, as many do not cover accommodation if travel is disrupted. MoneySuperMarket, the comparison site, confirmed that there were likely to be hundreds of travel policies that would not provide any cover for Friday’s events.
Paul Charles, a travel expert, said: “It will take until Monday to recover. It’s turmoil that the industry doesn’t need on one of the busiest weekends of the year.”
Mr Charles estimated that 25,000 people were directly affected by the cancellation of nearly 300 flights to and from the UK.
Airlines are responsible for arranging a replacement flight but may struggle to accommodate people, with travel experts warning that most flights were already expected to be fully booked.
Travellers hoping to rebook their own travel faced having to arrange their own transfers, with routes to some popular destinations, such as Athens, no longer having direct flights available.
George Kurtz, the CrowdStrike chief executive, told NBC, the US broadcaster, he was “deeply sorry” for the fault and admitted it would be “some time” before all the problems were resolved. He confirmed that the incident was not a cyber attack.
CrowdStrike’s software is widely used by businesses and is designed to protect companies from hacking, but a broken file included within a routine update to the technology almost immediately broke Windows computers that had the programme installed.
The company said it had since managed to fix the problem, but IT experts warned that many businesses were having to manually repair their computer systems.
GP surgeries in Britain were unable to access patient records or book appointments, with the NHS advising people only to contact a doctor if their ailment was urgent.
Cancer appointments were cancelled at some hospitals as radiology departments were hit by the outage, and some NHS systems remained down on Friday evening. The National Pharmacy Association warned that disruption was likely to continue through the weekend, even when systems are back online, as outlets deal with a backlog of medicine deliveries.
Holidaymakers hoping to use the railways for a getaway were also hit by the disruption. Thameslink, Southern Rail and Gatwick Express faced “widespread IT issues across our entire network” that left bosses unable to tell drivers which trains they were meant to be working on.
South Western Railway said all its ticket machines had stopped working on Friday morning. National Rail Enquiries advised passengers to “purchase your ticket online, on the train or speak to a member of station staff”.
On the high street, card payment systems at Waitrose and Gail’s, the bakery chain, stopped working, with staff having to take cash instead.
The London Stock Exchange’s in-house news service went offline, while Sky News was forced to pull its morning broadcast and replace it with pre-recorded footage.
Adam Leon Smith, a cyber security expert at the British Computer Society, said it could take “days and weeks” for some companies to get back online, while Ciaran Martin, a former head of GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre, estimated that the economic damage from the glitch would “run into the billions”.
07:12 PM BST
Wrapping up…
Thanks for joining us on this live coverage of a widespread technology outage, which affected companies and services around the world, grounding flights, knocking GP systems offline and preventing many people from paying for their shopping.
At the heart of the massive disruption is CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that provides software to scores of companies worldwide.
The company says the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows, noting that the issue behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.
06:58 PM BST
IT meltdown shows how horrifyingly exposed we are to total economic collapse
Over-dependence on cloud software has left the world one glitch away from disaster, writes business columnist Matthew Lynn:
The planes stopped flying, the trains stopped running and countless other services were disrupted around the world.
It remains to be seen how long the outage that hit global computer systems on Friday lasts. With any luck, it will be fixed quickly and the damage will be relatively minor.
And yet one point is surely clear: from the abolition of cash to the reliance on just-in-time supplies, we have become terrifyingly dependent on a tiny number of cloud-based computer systems.
We may be just one glitch away from a total economic collapse – and worst of all, for all the fashionable talk of “securonomics”, our political leaders are just making that worse.
Over the course of Friday, chaos rippled out across the world.
06:56 PM BST
Pensions and ISAs giant Vanguard says services restored
Investment platform Vanguard has emailed customers to say that services have been restored. It said:
We are aware of technical issues you may have experienced on our UK Personal Investor platform today due to a 3rd party global IT issue.
However, we are pleased to confirm our services have resumed and you can access your Vanguard account.
06:51 PM BST
Gail’s bakery investor attacks Crowdsource
A serial restaurant entrepreneur who formerly chaired Channel 4 has attacked CrowdSource, expressing surprise that the cyber security business has not plunged by more on the stock market today.
Luke Johnson is an investor in Gail’s bakery, which was unable to accept card payments as a result of the outage. He noted that the CrowdSource’s shares are highly priced compared to the business’s earnings.
“Why haven’t the shares collapsed 50pc or more?” he said.
Shares are currently down 12.3pc.
06:42 PM BST
Wall Street regulator says it is monitoring outage
America’s Securities and Exchange Commission has tweeted that it is “monitoring for market-related impacts” from today’s outage.
The SEC is aware of the situation related to a widespread IT disruption and is monitoring for market-related impacts.
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) July 19, 2024
06:20 PM BST
Microsoft boss says company is ‘working closely’ with CloudStrike
The chief executive of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, says the IT giant is working with CrowdSource to help customers “safely bring their systems back online”.
Tesla boss Elon Musk responded by saying: “This gave a seizure to the automotive supply chain.”
This gave a seizure to the automotive supply chain
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 19, 2024
06:18 PM BST
Airport ‘bedlam’ as Which? Travel warns of potential for lost bags
A traveller at Gatwick Airport said he had been queuing for more than three-and-a-half hours ahead of a flight to Miami, Florida.
Dean Seddon, 42, from Plymouth, told the PA news agency: “There are just people everywhere, there must be 400 people in this queue for the check-in desk I’m at … it’s just bedlam.”
Lance and Penny Spraggons said they had been waiting in a queue to check in at the West Sussex airport for more than an hour.
Mr Spraggons said: “The biggest problem is the lack of information.”
The queue at Stansted snaked outside the main terminal building.
Courtney Kemal, 32, who had been in the queue for around two hours by late morning, said her two sons aged five and seven were “obviously getting stressed”.
Rory Boland, editor of magazine Which? Travel, said passengers due to travel today “will naturally be deeply concerned”.
He went on: “If you can, avoid checking in a bag as queues for check-in at the airport will be long and IT failures typically lead to lots of lost bags.
“If you do check-in bags, make sure you keep medication, keys and any other essentials in your hand luggage.”
He said passengers will not be eligible for compensation for delayed or cancelled fights due to the “extraordinary circumstances”, but airlines have a duty to look after them, including providing meals, accommodation and alternative flight bookings if necessary.
06:11 PM BST
Pharmacies warn of weekend disruption while outage hit 60pc of GP practices
The National Pharmacy Association has warned that disruption from today’s IT outage is likely to continue through the weekend, even when systems are back online, as outlets deal with a backlog of medicine deliveries.
Thousands of GP practices have also been affected by the outage today, with NHS England confirming there has been an issue with the EMIS Web system, which is understood to be used by about 60pc of practices in England.
A spokesperson for NHS England said:
The NHS has long-standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP.
There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.
There are also some issues with administrative systems in hospitals that mean staff are having to work manually from paper to manage certain tasks but in the majority of hospitals, care is continuing as normal.
Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise. Only contact your GP if it’s urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said:
Our members are telling us that today’s outage is causing considerable disruption to GP practice bookings and IT systems – practices using EMIS IT systems appear to be particularly affected.
Outages like this affect our access to important clinical information about our patients, as well as our ability to book tests, make referrals, and inform the most appropriate treatment plan.
She asked patients to “try and wait” until the outage is resolved if their issue is not urgent.
EMIS Web is the most widely used clinical system for primary care in the UK.
It enables GP practices to book appointments, examine records and manage admin.
05:54 PM BST
Cancelled UK departures reach 143
Some 143 flights scheduled to depart UK airports on Friday have been cancelled amid the global IT outage, aviation analytics company Cirium said.
This equates to 4.6pc of scheduled departures, the firm said, while 142 flights due to land in the UK were cancelled.
05:52 PM BST
CrowdStrike rivals jump on stock market
Rivals to CrowdStrike jumped on the stock market, while the company at the centre of today’s outage has plunged.
The outage could force customers and investors alike to rethink their dependence on the company, opening the door to potential rivals like Palo Alto Networks, which saw its stock rise 1.7pc on Friday, and Sentinel One, which jumped as much as 3.6pc.
Gil Luria, senior software analyst at D.A. Davidson, said:
This event is a reminder of how complex and intertwined our global computing systems are and how vulnerable they are to a mistake and an error.
While most companies don’t really have an alternative to Microsoft, they do have alternatives for security.
This may cause many companies to reconsider which security product they use, and whether they need to diversify across different security products in order to prevent these types of outages.
However, other analysts said that while Friday’s events had been damaging for CrowdStrike, they did not foresee competitors taking much market share as a result of the incident.
“This is clearly a major black eye for CrowdStrike and the stock will be under pressure,” said Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, but he noted that the incident stemmed from a technical update and not a hack or cybersecurity threat, which he said would be “more worrying”.
05:42 PM BST
Outage requires ‘boots on the ground’ to fix, says IT analyst
Fixing today’s IT outage is not an easy fix, requiring “boots on the ground” to remediate, a leading analyst has said.
Eric Grenier of Gartner said:
The fix is working, it’s just a very manual process and there’s no magic key to unlock it. I think that is probably what companies are struggling with the most here.
While not everyone is a client of CrowdStrike and its platform known as Falcon, it is one of the leading cybersecurity providers, particularly in the transportation and banking sectors that have a lot at stake in keeping their computer systems working.
Gregory Falco, an assistant professor of engineering at Cornell University, said:
They’re usually risk-averse organisations that don’t want something that’s crazy innovative, but that can work and also cover their butts when something goes wrong. That’s what CrowdStrike is. And they’re looking around at their colleagues in other sectors and saying, “Oh, you know, this company also uses that, so I’m gonna need them, too.”
05:33 PM BST
Elon Musk says CrowdStrike deleted from his systems
The billionaire behind Telsa, SpaceX and and social media giant X has posted: “We just deleted Crowdstrike from all our systems”.
We just deleted Crowdstrike from all our systems, so no rollouts at all
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 19, 2024
05:25 PM BST
Microsoft suggests turning computers off and on again
While IT engineers are bogged down trying to fix thousands of broken computers, Microsoft says one solution may simply be to turn them off and on again. Matt Field reports:
In a technical update to customers, Microsoft said some “virtual machines” – often used for home-working computers – could be fixed by repeatedly turning them off and on, 404media reported.
“We have received feedback from customers that several reboots (as many as 15 have been reported) may be required, but overall feedback is that reboots are an effective troubleshooting step at this stage,” the company said.
The high tech advice echoes that given in the Channel 4 show, The IT Crowd, in which Chris O’Dowd’s character’s catchphrase is: “Hello, IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
In the latest technical update from CrowdStrike, the company said the bug in its update was sent out at around 5.09am this morning, impacting millions of computers.
05:16 PM BST
New York regulators say banks should be on high alert of cyber attacks
New York state regulators urged banks and companies to be on high alert amid the global tech outage on Friday, saying it is monitoring institutions and market events and working with other state and federal regulators.
The New York State Department of Financial Services “reminds all regulated entities to be vigilant at this time. Threat actors have been known to launch attacks during periods when IT and security staff are distracted, especially through social engineering,” it said in a statement.
The department supervises more than 3,000 financial institutions in New York.
05:14 PM BST
Fixing the IT outage could take ‘weeks’, says industry expert
Industry expert Adam Leon Smith of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, warned that it could even take “weeks” for all computers and systems to be fully restored.
He said:
The fix will have to be applied to many computers around the world. So if computers are getting blue screens and endless loops, it could be more difficult and take days and weeks.
Microsoft Windows isn’t the main OS for mission-critical systems, that’s Linux – and so this could have been much worse.
CrowdStrike had earlier confirmed that Linux and Apple Mac systems had not been impacted by the bug.
The flawed update caused major infrastructure to grind to a halt with computer systems knocked offline, and many devices were showing the so-called “blue screen of death” as they got stuck in an endless cycle of trying to reboot themselves, affecting key sectors across the country.
05:09 PM BST
More than 2,600 flights cancelled so far
Out of over 110,000 scheduled commercial flights on Friday, 2,691 have been cancelled globally so far and more are expected to be called off, according to data from global aviation analytics firm Cirium.
In Edinburgh, a Reuters witness said boarding pass scanners carried a “server offline message”, with the airport saying passengers shouldn’t travel to the airport without checking their flight status online first.
Elsewhere, airports and airlines advised customers to arrive earlier than normal for flights. Analysts said the outage was likely tied to a glitch in Microsoft software used globally.
The aviation sector is hit particularly hard due to its sensitivity to timings. Airlines rely on a closely coordinated schedule often run by air traffic control. Just one delay of a few minutes can throw off a flight schedule for take-offs and landings for an airport and airline for the rest of the day.
04:59 PM BST
Stock markets fall as outage rattled investors
World stock markets fell on Friday as a global cyber outage rattled investors, with falls in Britain, continental Europe and the US.
The outage hit services from airlines to banks, unsettling markets further after a turbulent week.
Jeff Kleintop, chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab, said:
Today’s outages remind us that services can have supply chain disruptions too. While not a cyberattack, the outage is a worrisome reminder of how our systems are deeply integrated.
04:57 PM BST
Heathrow Airport ‘working hard’ to minimise effects of the outage
Heathrow Airport said it is “working hard” to get passengers “on their way” following a major global IT outage. It added:
We continue to work with our airport colleagues to minimise the impact of the global IT outage on passenger journeys.
Flights continue to be operational and passengers are advised to check with their airlines for the latest flight information.
04:55 PM BST
Microsoft urges customers to follow Crowdstrike guidance
Microsoft has put out a statement saying:
We are aware of a scenario in which customers experience issues with their machines causing a bug check [blue screen] due to a recent CrowdStrike update. We recommend customers to follow guidance provided by CrowdStrike.
04:52 PM BST
Ambulance service receiving more calls amid IT outage
The North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) said it is experiencing a “higher volume” of calls from patients who are not able to contact other NHS providers following global IT issues.
Taryn Lake, director of finance and digital at NEAS, said:
So far, we have experienced minor disruption to our services as the result of the national IT outage.
We are currently working with partners for the continuity of our service.
However, we are experiencing a higher volume in calls from patients who are unable to contact other NHS providers and we are closely monitoring the situation.
I am signing off at this point for a lie down and to get as far away from any computers as possible. I will hand over the reins to Alex Singleton.
04:41 PM BST
Flight cancelled or delayed? Here’s what you need to know
Flights around the world have been disrupted after a massive outage caused Windows computers to suddenly shut down.
Chief consumer and culture editor Nick Trend explains what you need to know about refunds and compensation:
On Ryanair’s website, the company urged passengers to arrive at airports three hours early, blaming a “third-party IT issue, which is outside Ryanair’s control and affecting all airlines operating across the network”.
Travellers at airports including Gatwick, Los Angeles and Madrid have shared photos on social media showing long queues as airlines grapple with increasing delays. Air passengers in India were even given hand-written boarding passes in an effort to keep things running smoothly.
What are passengers caught up in the chaos entitled to? The detail around customer rights in this area is sometimes complicated, but the main principles are straightforward.
From severe weather to tech outages and air traffic control issues, read your rights if your flight is cancelled or delayed.
04:32 PM BST
US airlines begin recovery after IT systems chaos
Multiple US airlines were beginning to resume operations following the major worldwide computer systems outage.
The IT issue has wrought havoc at airports, grounding flights in Europe and the United States in particular.
At Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, Evyn Garson told AFP she and her family had been trying to travel to Florida for a wedding, but now “feel kind of stuck.”
She said: “We definitely considered just driving down there. But now it looks like they are checking bags so we might stay.”
American Airlines said in a post on social media platform X that it had been able to “safely re-establish our operation” following a “technical issue with a vendor.”
United Airlines said, also on X, that “some flights are resuming” as it worked to restore full operations, while Delta Airlines reported it too had resumed “some flight departures.”
And Frontier Airlines said it was “gradually normalising” and “in the process of resuming flight operations,” with its ground stop now lifted.
04:22 PM BST
Customers still ‘full protected’, insists CrowdStrike boss
CrowdStrike’s chief executive has said the cybersecurity company’s customers “remain fully protected” despite the ongoing global IT outage.
In a new statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, George Kurtz said:
Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected.
We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.
As noted earlier, the issue has been identified and a fix has been deployed. There was an issue with a Falcon content update for Windows Hosts.
For the latest information that we will continuously update, please refer to the CrowdStrike website, my posts on LinkedIn, and my posts on X.
I will continue to provide updates to our community and the industry as they become available.
Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected.
We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
04:19 PM BST
‘Bear with’ GPs dealing with IT outage, says Health Secretary
Wes Streeting has urged people to “bear with” GPs amid a major IT outage that has caused “considerable disruption” to appointment bookings and other services.
Thousands of GP practices have been affected, with NHS England confirming there has been an issue with the EMIS Web system, which is understood to be used by about 60pc of practices in England.
The Health Secretary tweeted:
This is having a particular impact on GP appointments and electronic prescribing.
Please bear with your local GPs if they’re grappling with this on top of normal pressures.
My department is working closely with colleagues across government. https://t.co/uc1WQF4cmy
— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) July 19, 2024
04:17 PM BST
UK energy network unscathed from IT failure
The UK’s key energy networks so far appear to have held up against the global internet meltdown.
Our energy editor Jonathan Leake has the latest:
The greatest concern was over the resilience of the National Grid which supplies power to most of the country.
A spokesperson for the Electricity System Operator (ESO), which oversees power supplies, said: “There has been no impact to ESO systems as a result of the global Microsoft outage. Our ability to operate the electricity system and supply electricity remains unaffected. Our engineers have been and continue to monitor the situation closely.”
British Gas, which supplies gas to homes and businesses, said it had not experienced any problems, as did rivals Octopus Energy whose spokesman said: “Both Octopus and Kraken systems have been unaffected by the Microsoft system outage.” [Kraken is the software designed by Octopus and used by other energy companies for managing bills and other systems.]
Ofgem, the energy industry regulator, said: “We’ve experienced no IT impact as a result of the reported outage.”
A spokesperson for National Gas, which manages much of the high pressure gas grid, said: “We are aware of the global IT issues currently affecting multiple companies. National Gas does not deploy the security software likely to be the root cause across any of its systems and is therefore not directly impacted by these events.
“We remain in close contact with the wider industry and our supply chain to manage any residual impact and will continue to monitor our systems and operations closely.”
A spokesman for EDF, which runs the UK’s nuclear power stations, said: “EDF is not experiencing any direct impacts to critical business systems. We are supplying power and serving our customers as normal but will continue to monitor the situation.” Nuclear sites were unaffected, it said.
RWE, the German company that generates 15pc of the UK’s electricity via its fleet of gas-fired power stations, hydroelectric plants and several wind farms, said it was unaffected.
04:09 PM BST
999 calls surge amid global IT failure
The London Ambulance Service (LAS) has experienced “huge increases” in the number of calls to its 999 and 111 services following global IT issues.
LAS chief executive Daniel Elkeles said:
Following the global IT outage that has impacted some NHS services across the capital, our call handlers and ambulance crews are incredibly busy with huge increases in the number of calls to both our 999 and 111 services.
In fact, by 2pm today, we had received more than 3,000 999 calls and 3,000 calls to our 111 services – this is a third higher than we would usually receive in a full 24 hour period.
Our teams are always here to help if you need us and we encourage anyone who needs our services to continue to contact us.
We are working very hard to make sure we are getting to patients as quickly as possible, but please be aware that our response times today may be impacted by this global issue.
We ask that people use our 999 services wisely and contact their pharmacy or visit NHS 111 online where possible. Londoners can continue to help us by only calling 999 in a serious medical emergency.
04:06 PM BST
Ports suffer delays from IT outage
Britain’s major ports revealed they have suffered delays to haulage and rail shipments as a result of the IT glitch.
The Port of Felixstowe posted a message on its website to say it was hit by the “global IT Crowdstrike issue” at 5.40am.
It said haulage and rail operations have recommenced, and “we are working up to full capacity as soon as possible”.
Meanwhile, Peel Ports, which runs a number of docks around the country, told The Loadstar that the Port of Liverpool’s connectivity to the a key industry messaging system “was temporarily interrupted for a couple of hours early this morning, but this was fully restored by 9.45am”.
03:52 PM BST
CrowdStrike shares drop 15pc after IT failure
Shares in his CrowdStrike have dropped to a two month low, wiping $12.2bn (£9.5bn) off the value of the business after causing the IT chaos.
The stock dropped by as much as 15pc on Wall Street after an update to one of its products appeared to trigger an outage that affected customers using Microsoft’s Windows Operating System, disrupting businesses across sectors.
Microsoft slipped as much as 1.9pc to a one-month low, wiping $62bn off the value of the tech giant, amid a rout in tech stocks.
Major airlines grounded flights and the London Stock Exchange’s news and data platform also faced issues as a result of the outage.
Phil Blancato, chief executive of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, said: “Any hint of bad news, because they (tech stocks) are so priced to perfection is going to hurt these stocks, both (CrowdStrike and Microsoft) are excellent companies and are worthwhile long-term holds.”
03:41 PM BST
Sanctioned Russia boasts about avoiding worst of IT outage
Russian officials have boasted that Moscow was spared the impact of the global IT systems outage because of its increased self-sufficiency after years of Western sanctions.
Microsoft and other IT companies have suspended sales of new products in Russia and have been scaling down their operations in line with sanctions imposed over Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Moscow describes as a special military operation.
CrowdStrike, the US cybersecurity company whose software caused Microsoft Windows to crash, had no known customers in Russia.
The Russian market is dominated by local cybersecurity firms such as Kaspersky Labs.
Mikhail Klimarev from the non-governmental Internet Protection Society said: “CrowdStrike has not provided any services in Russia, since February 2022 for sure.”
However, IT expert Eldar Murtazin said the risks posed by insufficient testing of new software updates were universal, and Russian software was not necessarily immune to future glitches like the one that hit CrowdStrike.
He told Reuters: “Such issues can happen to any software, whether Russian or non-Russian, if there are no proper controls over new releases. If such an outage had occurred 3-4 years ago, a number of Russian companies would have been affected.”
03:25 PM BST
CrowdStrike chief executive slammed for “weapons-grade” corporate speak
CrowdStrike’s chief executive has been accused of using “weapons-grade” corporate jargon and “legalease doublespeak” in his response to the massive outage which knocked millions of computers offline.
Our senior technology reporter Matthew Field has the latest:
Lulu Cheng Meservey, a veteran public relations official who previously worked at ActiVision and Substack, slammed the chief executive’s statement in the wake of the incident.
In a post on X, she said George Kurtz’s initial response was “obviously written by a committee of lawyers and middle managers whose only goal was to avoid legal risk and threats to their own job security”.
The statement itself contained no apology for the software error, which knocked airlines, hospitals and police services offline. It also suggested customers only speak to CrowdStrike through “official channels”.
She added: “People are saying ChatGPT could’ve written this, but I think ChatGPT would’ve done a better job.”
In a subsequent interview on NBC News, Mr Kurtz went further and said he was “deeply sorry” for the IT debacle.
CrowdStrike CEO is getting pummeled for his response to the global outage.
Why everyone hates it:
1) WEAPONS-GRADE CORPO SPEAK
Let’s be clear. Legalese doublespeak is designed to dodge and obfuscate rather than inform or communicate. This statement was obviously written by a… pic.twitter.com/oLua908QR2
— Lulu Cheng Meservey (@lulumeservey) July 19, 2024
03:18 PM BST
Singapore rocked by global IT outage
Singapore’s Changi Airport, among the busiest in the world, has been grappling with long queues at check-in counters amid the global IT outage.
Our global health security correspondent Sarah Newey has sent this update:
Ten airlines, including Scoot, Jetstar and Cebu Air Pacific, were forced to switch to check-in passengers manually.
“We are continuing to monitor and manage the situation arising from the global outage of IT systems,” the travel hub said.
“We have worked with our airport partners to bring in additional resources to support the manual check-in process.”
One passenger, identified only as Ms Tan told Channel News Asia: “They kept saying, please wait, please wait, and then the plane was gone. It left without us, it ditched us.”
Singapore’s The Strait Times – which said it is among a range of news outlets also affected – reported a spike in reports of outages, citing the website Downdetector.com.
Across the city state, there were 150 reports of problems with Microsoft 365, 50 from Microsoft Azure and 20 related to Amazon Web Services, as of 2pm.
Elsewhere in the country some Singapore Post services – including its international and domestic shipping and parcel tracking systems – went down, the ride-hailing app ComfortDelGro was affected.
03:06 PM BST
Card payments in Africa hit by IT outage
Capitec, a major South African retail bank, said the IT outage led to customers having difficulties with card payments, online banking and mobile app transactions, writes our Africa editor Ben Farmer.
Services were back up by mid-morning, the bank said.
The country’s national carrier, South African Airways (SAA), said its call centre had been hit, leading to longer waiting times for callers.
03:00 PM BST
IT chaos wipes $10bn off CrowdStrike
The company behind the global IT outage has suffered a nearly $10bn hit after trading began on Wall Street.
CrowdStrike shares opened down about 12pc as its boss said he was “deeply sorry” for the huge disruption caused by a “software bug”.
02:47 PM BST
Ryanair tells passengers to go home amid airport chaos
Ryanair urged passengers whose flights have been cancelled to leave the airport.
The airline said in a statement:
Unfortunately, we’ve been forced to cancel a small number of flights today due to this global third-party IT outage.
Affected passengers have been notified and are advised to log into their myRyanair account once systems are back online to see their options.
A full list of cancellations is available at ryanair.com. If your flight has been cancelled, we kindly request that you leave the airport as the IT outage means we cannot currently assist passengers at the airport.
We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused by this global third-party IT outage, and we are working hard to minimise disruption and keep passengers informed.
02:37 PM BST
Aviva travel insurance business hit by medical systems outage
Aviva said it cannot provide any quotes for travel insurance for those who have a pre-existing medical condition as a result of the IT outage, writes Ruby Hinchliffe.
The travel insurers’ medical systems are down due to the global Microsoft outage.
It is telling customers to “call back in a week” to get a quote for their trips.
The insurer’s online quote service is also down for those with a pre-existing medical condition.
02:30 PM BST
What is CrowdStrike? The $80bn IT giant behind Friday’s global meltdown
Someone, somewhere within IT cyber security giant CrowdStrike is having the worst day at work in their life.
Our senior technology reporter Matthew Field reveals how a rogue file caused the dramatic global IT failure:
Early on Friday morning, people awoke to find TV news channels silent, trains cancelled and websites crashing in a massive IT outage impacting tens of millions of computers.
It seemed almost any business running Microsoft’s Windows 10 software experienced a sudden, dramatic failure. Computers appeared to automatically shut themselves down and display the so-called “blue screen of death”.
As dawn broke, Sky News broadcast an error message: “We apologise for the interruption to this broadcast.”
It was forced to run archive footage for several hours.
Read how CrowdStrike became a US technology giant and found itself at the centre of a technology meltdown.
02:24 PM BST
Savers unable to access accounts
Some savers are unable to access their accounts with major online platforms due to the IT disruption.
Our reporter Rob White has the details:
Pension and investment company Royal London’s website is down and clients are unable to login.
A Royal London spokesman said: “We are experiencing an issue with some of our services as a result of the wider IT problems affecting a number of organisations and sectors that is currently being reported.
“We are addressing this as a matter of priority and will provide an update as soon as we are able to do so.”
Investment fund and asset manager Abrdn also said its customers were currently locked out.
An Abrdn spokesman said: “Our adviser platforms Wrap, Elevate and Fundzone are currently experiencing some disruption from the global outage affecting many industries, outside of our control. We’re sorry for this inconvenience.
“Our teams are working hard to assess impact and minimise disruption. We’ll be keeping clients informed.”
Neither company was able to provide an update on when customers would regain access to their accounts.
02:14 PM BST
Cash is king again as IT outage disrupts card payments in shops
A number of shops across the country reported not being able to take card payments amid the worldwide IT outage.
Customers across the country have faced issues with trying to pay using their cards, with numerous shops putting up “cash only” signs on their doors.
A spokesman for the supermarket Morrisons said there were some “isolated incidents” with payment systems this morning, which have now been resolved and systems are working normally.
Waitrose said it was taking contactless payments largely as normal, as well as still processing payments by chip and pin and cash.
A spokesman for the supermarket said it had been able to take card payments throughout the day, but had been “briefly limited on contactless payments”.
A shoe shop in Cambridge had taped a handwritten sign to its door, which read: “Due to global IT issue, cash only. Sorry for any inconvenience”.
Elsewhere, restaurants in Parliament were only accepting cash payments, although cash machines in Westminster were still working.
A number of supermarkets, including Iceland and Asda, said they had been unaffected.
02:08 PM BST
Gatwick staff shout out passenger destinations for check-in as it works through backlog
Passengers at Gatwick Airport are being checked in manually on specific flights to ease long queues that have emerged because of a global IT outage.
The global glitch has led to long queues for the check-in desks at the airport, with some passengers standing still for several hours.
In response, airport staff have started to check passengers onto specific flights to ease the queues in order of intended departure time.
One member of staff could be heard shouting “Budapest” amid a large crowd of people urging the relevant passengers to come forward.
01:54 PM BST
NHS trust declares critical incident
Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust has declared a critical incident due to disruption to its radiotherapy services caused by the IT outage.
It contacted patients who were due to have treatment this morning to reschedule.
A statement on its website said the hospital is “now able to deliver radiotherapy services and this afternoon’s appointments will take place as scheduled”.
However, it warned the disruption could affect appointments into next week.
It comes as thousands of GP practices across England have been affected by the global IT outage, which has caused “considerable disruption” to appointment bookings and other services.
NHS England said there was an issue with the EMIS Web system, which is understood to be used by about 60pc of practices in England.
Around 3,700 GP practices may be affected, according to the PA news agency.
People trying to access the NHS app have also encountered problems.
01:42 PM BST
Holidaymakers urged to check travel insurance
Holidaymakers whose plans have been disrupted by the global IT outage are being urged to check with their travel insurer to see what they are covered for.
MoneySuperMarket Travel Insurance said that if a policy includes travel disruption cover then it may be possible to claim for disruption or losses incurred as a result of a trip being delayed or cancelled.
This may include alternative accommodation or expenses incurred such as travel, food and drink, possibly stretching to covering the full cost of the holiday if holidaymakers are unable to go.
But the website added that not all policies cover this as standard, and cover levels, conditions and exclusions can vary between providers, making it important to check with the insurer as a first port of call.
A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said:
We can appreciate that it will be very stressful for anyone whose travel plans have been impacted by the IT outage.
If your travel insurance policy includes cover for travel disruption then costs that you might incur as a result of travel delays or cancellations, and that are not recoverable from elsewhere, should be included.
In the first instance, refunds should be sought from the airline, accommodation provider or tour operator and any bookings made through a credit card may also have recoverable cost protection. If unsure, check with your travel insurer to see what you’re covered for.
01:34 PM BST
CrowdStrike boss warns it will be ‘some time’ before worldwide systems return to normal
The IT failure that has caused chaos around the world could take “some time” to fix for many companies, according to the boss of the antivirus software business behind the outage.
George Kurtz, the chief executive of CrowdStrike, had said that the bug which caused the IT meltdown has been “resolved” but warned that does not mean businesses are out of the woods.
He told NBC:
It wasn’t a cyber attack. It was related to this content update.
As you might imagine, we have been on with our customers all night and working with them.
Many of the customers are rebooting the system and it is coming up and will be operational because we fixed it on our end.
Some of the systems that aren’t recovering, we’re working with them.
It could be some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover but it is our mission… to make sure that every customer is fully recovered and we’re not going to relent until we get every customer back to where they were.
We continue to protect them and keep the bad guys out of their systems.
01:23 PM BST
CrowdStrike boss ‘deeply sorry’ as he says IT chaos ‘resolved’
The boss of the US company behind the massive IT outage impacting companies around the world has apologised and said the issue has been fixed.
George Kurtz, the chief executive of CrowdStrike, told NBC:
We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this.
We know what the issue is. We are resolving and have resolved the issue now. It is recovering systems that are out there.
The system was sent an update and that update had a software bug in it and caused an issue with the Microsoft operating system.
We identified this very quickly and remediated the issue and as systems come back online and they are rebooted, they are coming up and they are working.
We are working with each and every customer to make sure we can bring them back online.
01:17 PM BST
London Stock Exchange news service back up and running
The London Stock Exchange has said its Regulatory News Service is back up and running after the global IT outage.
The data feed, which is vital for company information, is has been restored and is fully operating, it said.
01:09 PM BST
Edinburgh Airport halts inbound flights
Edinburgh Airport is temporarily closed to all inbound flights because of the number of aircraft stuck on the ground there thanks to the impact of the IT outage on their airlines.
Our transport correspondent Gareth Corfield has the latest:
A spokesman confirmed that no flights are currently allowed to land at Edinburgh until the congestion has eased. Eurocontrol, which manages air traffic control, said that Edinburgh Airport “is not available for arrivals due to IT issues”.
The Telegraph understands that airport bosses will be reviewing the so-called zero rate flow restriction at 1pm.
The problem appears to have been caused by US airlines Delta and United imposing a worldwide “ground stop” on all flights earlier this morning that has led to hours of delays across their UK routes.
United Airlines said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter: “As we work to fully restore these systems, some flights are resuming. Many customers travelling today may experience delays.”
01:03 PM BST
Paydays under threat from IT outage
Workers could have their pay impacted by the global IT outages, the body representing payroll professionals has warned.
Businesses who pay staff on a weekly basis are struggling to pay on time, according to Global Payroll Association.
According to Indeed on 15pc of people in the UK are paid weekly – about 4.3 million workers.
Melanie Pizzey, chief executive and founder of the Global Payroll Association, said:
We’ve been contacted by numerous clients already today who have been unable to access their payroll software due to the Microsoft outage and others who have been urged to log out with immediate effect.
Depending on the length of this outage, it could have very serious implications for businesses across the nation, particularly those who process payroll on a weekly basis.
Furthermore, we could see a backlog with regard to processing payrolls for the coming month end which may delay employees from receiving their monthly wage.
At best, it will require those managing payroll to work overtime to rectify the issue, but the good news is that it doesn’t seem to be a cyber attack.
This means that the sensitive employee details held within payroll should be safe, although we’re seeing many companies understandably take action to minimise such a threat as a precaution.
12:55 PM BST
US tourists told to pay £5,200 for new flights
US tourists were forced to pay $6,800 (£5,262) for new flights home from Edinburgh Airport after original plans were cancelled because of IT outages.
Stephanie Thompson, heading home to Dallas, Texas, said her family, who were in the UK to attend Wimbledon and the Open Championship in Troon, were unable to reach British Airlines or American Airlines for support.
Speaking from Edinburgh Airport, she said:
It was supposed to leave at 9.25am and change in Heathrow at 11 and we were supposed to get into Dallas later today.
We couldn’t get an answer from anybody. British Airways kept hanging up saying we have too many calls right now. I was on hold with American (Airlines) for about an hour and 10 minutes before I finally hung up.
We just paid 6,800 dollars for a one-way trip home, hopefully leaving tonight. I didn’t know what else to do. I just wanted something to get us home.
Another US tourist, Debbie, and her family, said their flight to Boston was also cancelled.
12:45 PM BST
World faces economic hit running into billions from IT glitch
One of Britain’s leading cybersecurity experts has warned that the economic hit from the global outage “could run into billions” of pounds.
Our senior economics reporter Eir Nolsøe has the latest:
Professor Alan Woodward at Surrey University said it was difficult to estimate the precise cost but warned the widespread disruption would have profound impacts and could drag on for days.
Professor Woodward said: “When the ransomware known as NotPetya hit for example Maersk, it cost that one company billions on its balance sheet.”
He added: “I fear the disruption will spread over days unless they can magically come up with a way of updating the software without the PC booting properly. You can put PCs into recovery mode and fix it that way, but how many PC users know how or would allowed to do that?”
12:33 PM BST
CrowdStrike shares sink in ‘PR nightmare’
CrowdStrike shares were down 12pc in premarket trading in New York after the outage with its systems caused global IT chaos.
Dan Ives, a technology analyst with Wedbush Securities, writes: said:
This is clearly a major black eye for CrowdStrike and the stock will be under pressure after this global outage related to Microsoft has caused massive disruption globally.
This is a technical update and importantly not a hack/cyber security threat which would be more worrying.
The ‘blue screen of death’ for Microsoft users is all related to this technical update from CrowdStrike. In a nutshell, this is PR nightmare for CrowdStrike and Microsoft.
12:27 PM BST
Cashless meltdown as Waitrose and Gail’s payments hit by web outage
Businesses including Waterstones and Gail’s have been forced to return to accepting just cash after electronic payments were hit by a web outage.
Fran Ivens, Hannah Boland and Rob White have the latest:
Shops, cafes, pubs and even Parliament have been impacted by the global systems, forcing customers to use cash to pay for goods and services.
Waitrose has told shoppers it is unable to process contactless payments as a global IT outage sparks chaos across the UK.
The middle-class supermarket is understood to only be able to process chip and pin payments or take cash in stores. Customers reported being told that they would have to get cash out of nearby card machines to pay for shopping.
A sign in a Waitrose in Petersfield was pictured saying the store was cash only as all “card readers have failed”, with an apology for any inconvenience caused. A local radio station reported that queues had formed at an ATM round the corner as shoppers tried to get their hands on bank notes.
Take part in our poll about a cashless society.
12:20 PM BST
Air passengers manually registered at Thai airports
There were long queues at Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, a major travel hub for the country and southeast Asia more broadly, as outages hit the check-in systems and airlines were forced to manually register passengers for their flights.
Our global health security correspondent Sarah Newey has sent this update from Bangkok:
Suvarnabhumi’s management posted on Facebook: “Guests are strongly encouraged to arrive at the airport in advance for their flights to avoid any disruptions.
“We appreciate your patience and understanding during this time.”
On the other side of the city, the country’s second largest airport Don Mueang was also experiencing difficulties, especially the low-cost carrier Air Asia.
Elsewhere, Siriraj Piyamaharajkarun Hospital in Bangkok has cancelled all patient appointments and suspended services due to the outage, while Bangkok Hospital Surat, in the southern Surat Thani province, has told patients to expect delays because of the IT disruption, according to the state broadcaster Thai PBS.
12:12 PM BST
No government business impacted by IT chaos
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman has said Number 10 is not aware of any government business being impacted by the global IT meltdown.
Our political editor Ben Riley-Smith was at a morning briefing with political reporters:
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “We are keeping a close monitor on the situation and making sure the relevant industries have access to what support we can provide.”
The spokesman added Downing Street was “not aware of anything impacting the usual government business today”.
It is understood officials have held a Cobr meeting on the disorder but ministers have not yet attended. The Cabinet has been hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today.
Downing Street also declined to issue a call for those affected by the transport disruption today on trains and planes to be given compensation.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said “it is for the operators to speak to their policies”.
12:08 PM BST
Whitehall holds Cobra meeting on IT crisis – without Starmer
An emergency Cobra meeting was held at official-level – rather than ministers – on Friday morning to discuss the IT chaos, Downing Street said.
A No 10 spokeswoman told reporters: “We recognise the impact this is having on services and the Government is working closely with the respective sectors and industries on this issue, which is affecting services not only across the UK but also globally.
“Officials have met in the Cobra unit on this this morning and of course are updating ministers regularly on this issue.”
She said she was not aware of plans for a Cobra gathering with ministers present.
Asked why Sir Keir Starmer did not chair the meeting of the committee, she said: “The Prime Minister’s had bilaterals with President Zelensky and Cabinet this morning, but all ministers including the Prime Minister are being kept informed with the latest.”
The spokeswoman also said she is not aware of any Government business being hit by the outage.
12:04 PM BST
Air passengers told not to check in luggage and train tickets manually scanned
UK transport networks have been plunged into chaos by the global IT outage.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said her department is “working at pace with industry and across Government on the issue”.
Consumer group Which? advised airline passengers to avoid checking in luggage if possible.
Long queues formed at airports such as Gatwick, Luton and Edinburgh, exacerbated by today being the busiest day of the year so far for UK air travel.
Some 3,214 departing flights were scheduled as thousands of families embark on summer holidays at the end of the academic year for many schools.
Train service information website National Rail Enquiries warned passengers there are “widespread IT issues across the entire network”.
National Rail Enquiries advised passengers to “purchase your ticket online, on the train or speak to a member of station staff”.
11:59 AM BST
Musk: Biggest IT fail ever
Elon Musk, the Tesla chief executive and billionaire owner of X, has posted a characteristically pithy tweet about the worldwide IT chaos:
11:56 AM BST
Sky News broadcasts stripped back coverage amid IT delays
Sky News has returned to air after the broadcaster was affected by the major IT outage affecting businesses across the world.
After welcoming viewers back to the channel, the morning anchor reported on the news saying: “A major global IT outage is hitting businesses worldwide, including here at Sky News.”
The presenters referred to printed notes during the report on Friday morning as the broadcaster handled the outage.
The channel ran a stripped-back version of its live news programming, with no clock or graphics on the screen except a stationary bar signposting to the Sky News website, app and X page.
The show also ran without a news ticker, which usually provides updates along the bottom of the screen.
The coverage cut between presenters in the studio discussing the IT issue with experts and roaming reporters interviewing members of the public affected by the outage at locations including Edinburgh Airport.
Sky News’ online page, YouTube and TV channel previously displayed an apology for the interruption to the broadcast.
Following the outage, a Sky News spokesman said:
Sky News has not been able to broadcast live TV this morning, we apologise for the interruption.
All the news is still available online, on the Sky News app, website, and across our social media accounts.
We are working hard to restore all services.
11:50 AM BST
Queues snake outside terminal building at Stansted Airport
The queue at London Stansted Airport snaked outside the main terminal building as an IT outage caused delays.
Courtney Kemal, 32, who had already been in the queue for around two hours by late morning, said her two sons aged five and seven were “obviously getting stressed”.
The business student, of Romford, east London, said their Ryanair flight taking them on an eight-day holiday to Magaluf was due to leave at 12.40pm and they had arrived at 9am.
She said she had heard “nothing” from the airline and said “we had no warning of this”.
11:45 AM BST
Ministers launch Cobra system to tackle IT outage
Whitehall crisis officials are co-ordinating the response to the major IT outage hitting airlines, train companies and banks.
The Cobra system that deals with matters of national emergency or major disruption has been fired up, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said.
Ministers are in touch with their sectors to tackle the fallout from the IT failures, with Transport Secretary Louise Haigh saying she is working “at pace with industry” after trains and flights ground to a halt.
Businesses and institutions around the globe have been knocked offline by the outage, believed to have been caused by a faulty update to widely used cybersecurity software.
Mr McFadden, who is in charge of the Whitehall machine, said on X:
Many people are being affected by today’s IT outages impacting services across the country and globally.
Ministers are working with their sectors and respective industries on the issue.
I am in close contact with teams coordinating our response through the COBR response system
— Pat McFadden (@patmcfaddenmp) July 19, 2024
11:43 AM BST
US airlines halt takeoffs as airports around the world disrupted
Major American airlines have ordered some flights to halt or delay their takeoff as a result of communications issues.
Our deputy US editor Rozina Sabur has this update:
More than one screen at the departure gates in Milwaukee’s international airport – currently packed with thousands of Republican convention attendees – has gone ominously blue.
Rather than displaying boarding information, the screens read: “recovery”.
American banks and phone companies have also been hit.
11:28 AM BST
Australia activates crisis system amid IT outage
The Australian prime minister has activated the country’s crisis protocols as the government races to get systems back online amid the global IT failure.
Anthony Albanese said the “National Coordination Mechanism has been activated”.
The mechanism, first employed during pandemic, is enacted in “domestic crises” and brings together experts from the public and private sector to find solutions to protect services including transport and food supply chains.
Mr Albanese said:
I understand Australians are concerned about the outage that is unfolding globally and affecting a wide range of services.
My Government is working closely with the National Cyber Security Coordinator.
He said there was “no impact to critical infrastructure”.
11:21 AM BST
Waitrose unable to take contactless payment
Waitrose has told shoppers it is unable to process contactless payments as a global IT outage sparks chaos across the UK.
The middle class supermarket is understood to only be able to process chip and pin payments or take cash in stores.
Petersfield @waitrose is among the stores unable to process card payments this morning. It’s linked to the global IT outage. People have been queuing at nearby Santander for cash. pic.twitter.com/kg7v9rZwp4
— Petersfield’s Shine Radio (@shineradio) July 19, 2024
11:18 AM BST
Cancer appointments cancelled as IT systems go down
Cancer patient appointments have also had to be cancelled at some hospitals as radiology departments were hit by the outage, it’s understood.
Our health correspondent Michael Searles has the latest:
Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust was forced to declare a critical incident because its system, Varian, that it uses to deliver radiotherapy treatments has been impacted.
A spokesman said: “This means we are currently unable to deliver our scheduled radiotherapy treatments. We have contacted our patients who were due to have radiotherapy this morning to reschedule appointments while we work to fix these issues.”
They said they “will directly contact patients who are due to have radiotherapy appointments if we are unable to deliver their treatments” but urged people to attend unless they hear otherwise.
11:13 AM BST
NHS hospitals struggling to offer appointments and prescriptions
Some NHS hospitals are also struggling to access internal systems with appointment booking services and medication prescribing services understood to be affected.
Our health correspondent Michael Searles has sent this update:
One hospital said patients could expect delays due to its “administrative services” being affected by the outage.
Salisbury District Hospital, in Wiltshire, said: “We are suffering some delays at our hospital with our administrative services due to the global IT outage. We ask patients and visitors to please bear with us as we use alternative methods.”
An NHS source said hospitals would feel the knock-on effect either way if systems they “interact with are offline”.
Patients are also unable to view their own medical records, which are available to view online on the NHS App after the services went down.
11:10 AM BST
Bank of England ‘monitoring’ IT failure
The Bank of England has said it is “monitoring” the situation and in contact with companies affected by the global IT failure, writes economics editor Szu Ping Chan.
It comes a day after the central bank suffered a separate outage to a global payments system that left some people unable to complete house purchases.
A Bank spokesman said:
We are monitoring the situation closely and continuing to engage with firms and other authorities.
There is no impact on the Bank’s systems.
The Bank suffered a temporary outage to its Chaps interbank payment system on Thursday which handles an average of more than £360bn a day.
11:07 AM BST
Tech outage is being fixed, says CrowdStrike boss
CrowdStrike has confirmed it is racing to help customers fix a massive IT outage caused by a fault in its software.
George Kurtz, CrowdStrike’s founder and chief executive, said: “CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted.
“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.
“We further recommend organisations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”
CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
11:05 AM BST
Paris Olympics hit in build up to Games
The Paris Olympics organisers have said the preparations for the 2024 Games, which begin next week, have been hit by the IT outage.
A spokesman said:
Paris 2024 is aware of global technical issues affecting Microsoft software. These issues are impacting Paris 2024’s IT operations.
France’s cybersecurity agency also said there was no evidence the outage was caused by a cyberattack.
A spokesman added:
The teams are fully mobilised to identify and support the affected entities in France and to understand the origin of this outage.
11:01 AM BST
Zurich airport closed
Aircraft are unable to take off from Zurich Airport as the global IT failure deepened travel chaos.
The travel hub was unable to accept landings and flight operations remain partially restricted with delays and canceled flights.
It is not operating any services to the US.
Flights headed to Zurich that are already in the air are still allowed to land.
However, passengers of individual airlines are being checked in manually.
10:55 AM BST
Airports use whiteboards to display departure times
Belfast Airport has resorted to using a whiteboard to display flight times as a result of the tech outage.
A spokesperson said:
A global IT system outage is impacting the airport alongside many other businesses, but flights remain operational.
Our IT teams are working hard to resolve the issue but there are longer wait times than usual at the airport and we thank passengers for their patience while the issue is being resolved.
Whiteboards being used at @belfastairport as all the screens are blue. Passenger Martin McElroy took this, and told us that it’s like “the dark ages, but to be fair they’re making it work, which you have to give them credit for.” #outage pic.twitter.com/FfSmEHCvuO
— Stephen Murphy (@SMurphyTV) July 19, 2024
10:52 AM BST
Only contact GP if it is urgent, NHS tells patients
An NHS spokesman said:
The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in the majority of GP practices.
The NHS has long standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP.
There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.
Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise. Only contact your GP if it’s urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111.
10:49 AM BST
IT outage shows importance of learning lessons from pandemic, says minister
The global IT outage is a reminder of the importance of learning the lessons from the Covid pandemic, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden has said.
Our politics live blog editor Jack Maidment has this update:
Referring to the first report from the Covid-19 inquiry chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, Mr McFadden told MPs in the House of Commons this morning: “Baroness Hallett says it’s not a question of if another pandemic will strike, but when and resilience isn’t just about another pandemic but the full range of risks that we face.
“And we’re reminded of that this morning as reports come in of a global IT outage affecting airlines, GP surgeries, banks, media organisations and other organisations. It is not easy to know what the future holds. You can’t plan fully for every possible risk. But we must do what we can to learn the lessons of this period.
“Government’s first responsibility is to keep the public safe. That’s a top priority for this Government with a long-term approach to strengthening our national resilience. I will lead a review of our national resilience against the range of risks that the UK faces. I’ll chair a dedicated Cabinet Committee on resilience to oversee that work.
“And of course, it’s not just about central Government. We will work with the devolved governments, our regional mayors and local leaders as we consider the recommendations in this report. Because when we have an emergency, we should do everything we can to work together locally and nationally.”
10:39 AM BST
FTSE 100 slumps amid IT chaos
London markets dropped in value after the IT failure, which has caused issues around the world for banks, supermarkets, airlines and other major institutions.
The FTSE 100 fell 0.8pc in early trading as investors were spooked by the outage potentially hitting companies’ bottom lines if it goes on too long.
The London Stock Exchange said securities trading was unaffected by the outage, but its regulatory news service was not working.
Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, said:
Countless industries, from airlines and trains to banks and media, face disruption to earnings if they cannot do their job.
Workers cannot get from A to B and that will have a knock-on effect for industries across the board if staff aren’t there to perform important functions or systems are offline.
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, potentially causing damage to companies and economies.
Stock markets continued to function as normal despite corporate news feeds and information terminals being impacted by the tech outage.
Futures prices imply a small pullback when Wall Street opens later today, but so far investors have not shown any panic. Whether that remains the case as the day goes on is another matter.
10:37 AM BST
Visa says payments going ahead as normal
Payments giant Visa said it was unaffected by the outage, meaning payment processing on its systems is continuing as normal.
A spokesman for Visa said:
There is no indication of any impact on Visa’s ability to process payments from this issue.
Our systems are operating normally.
We are aware of reports of people being unable to make payments and are working with our financial institution clients to understand any impact on their services to cardholders and merchants.
10:28 AM BST
Air passengers face ‘bedlam’ at check-in desks
A traveller at Gatwick Airport queuing for over three-and-a-half hours has described the scene at the travel hub as “bedlam” with staff now handing out water to those stranded.
Dean Seddon started queuing at 6am to check in for a trip with his social media training company to Miami, Florida, ahead of their scheduled departure at 10am with Norse Atlantic Airways.
The 42-year-old from Plymouth said:
There are just people everywhere, there must be 400 people in this queue for the check in desk I’m at… it’s just bedlam.
It’s one of those things where you kind of know we’re not going to fly, but you don’t want to leave because you don’t know.
(Staff are) doing the best they can but they don’t actually know when it’s going to be fixed, so it is frustrating, but you kind of feel for the staff as well.
Mr Seddon said there had been some people getting “agitated” in the queue but overall travellers had remained calm.
10:25 AM BST
Children told to stay home on last day of term
Schools and universities have been hit by the global tech outage, with some children told to stay at home for the last day of the school year.
Our education editor Poppy Wood has the details:
Castleford Academy, a secondary school in West Yorkshire, has reported a “severe issue” with its computer servers as a result of the blackout. It was forced to close to all pupils at short notice this morning, on what would have been their last day of term before the summer holidays.
Others said they were unable to report pupil absences in the usual way. Whitecross Hereford High School, a specialist sports college, said its school information management system was down due to the tech outage and that parents should call in if their child is sick.
Harlington Upper School in Bedfordshire reported similar, and said it was “unable to contact parents if your child is not in school”.
The disruption has also spread to universities. The University of Manchester, part of the prestigious Russell Group of universities, said it was “aware of an issue affecting access” to IT services, and that it was investigating the problem “as a matter of urgency”.
10:23 AM BST
Morrisons and Waitrose ‘unable to take contactless payments’
Supermarkets have reported issues taking contactless payments in stores following the IT outage, writes retail editor Hannah Boland.
The Telegraph understands that Morrisons has received reports of contactless card payments not working this morning, while customers complained that they had been unable to pay in Waitrose stores.
The issues are not thought to be happening across all supermarkets, with some including Sainsbury’s saying they were not seeing any problems taking payments in stores.
10:21 AM BST
Heathrow baggage handler confirms IT hit
Amadeus, which manages baggage at Heathrow, has said it has been affected by the issue.
A spokesman said:
Various media outlets this morning have reported an issue with Crowd Strike (the American cyber security technology company) which is affecting many organisations.
At Amadeus we have detected issues with some of our services and we are working to do what we can as the highest priority.
10:18 AM BST
GPs unable to access patient notes
Dr Farah Jameel, a GP in central London working at Museum Practice, said she is unable to access patient notes, imaging results, medication history and blood tests.
She said:
We are still working through what this could mean for our practice.
At present we cannot access any patient notes and are trying to assess patients on a case by case basis.
We are unable to access blood test results, imaging results, clinical history and anticipate that the clinical documentation work will accumulate through the course of the day.
Patient care pathways will be interrupted as we are unable to organise simple management plans like organising tests, and issuing regular medications.
We are operating a clinical triage system so that we can ensure safety of our patients and see those with the greatest clinical need. Deferring all others that can safely wait to another day.
Dr Jameel also stressed how “unsafe” the interruption is. She added: “I think we need to underline the clinical impact of this IT disruption on how significantly it has interrupted clinical care. This is unsafe.”
10:17 AM BST
MPs forced to use cash to buy breakfast
Restaurants in Parliament appear to have been affected by the global IT outage.
Parliamentary catering services were only accepting cash payments this morning, although cash machines in Westminster were still working.
10:16 AM BST
Air traffic control not hit by IT meltdown – as airlines battle check-in delays
Air traffic controller NATS said it currently has no IT issues and is operating normally and safely.
Our transport industry editor Christopher Jasper has the latest:
A NATS spokesman said: “We are working closely with airports and airlines to understand how best we can support them and their customers.”
London Heathrow said its own in-house systems are working but that some flights have been delayed or cancelled as a result of the failure of check-in systems used by airlines.
Delta and United grounded flights worldwide, a spokesman for the airport said, while services between Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol and Berlin were unable to operate as the hubs were closed.
The Heathrow spokesman said: “This is impacting some of our airlines more than others. Some airlines are having to check in passengers manually, and that takes time. And aviation is a global network so that disruption elsewhere will have a knock-on effect here.”
Virgin Atlantic, one of the biggest carriers at the London hub, said its flying programme has not been affected.
Manchester airport said disruption is confined to those airlines — chiefly Ryanair and TUI — whose passenger handling is performed by Swissair, which is being forced to check in and board travellers manually.
10:12 AM BST
Ukrainian cyber defence force issues warning over IT outage
Ukraine’s cyber defence forces have issued advice on how to work around the IT outage – and insisted that the country’s own organisations have resumed their work “fully or partially”.
It said:
SSSCIP specialists advise using instructions provided by the CrowdStrike for a hotfix:
Start Windows in Safe Mode or Windows Recovery Environment
Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory
Find the file named “C-00000291*.sys” and delete it
Restart your computer or server
SSSCIP recommends to use this method until CrowdStrike releases official information.We are ready to provide advisory and practical assistance for Ukrainian organizations in solving the problem.
10:08 AM BST
Watch: Passengers wait for hours at Gatwick check-in
10:06 AM BST
Starmer urged to hold Cobra meeting on IT delays
The Liberal Democrats called on Sir Keir Starmer to hold a Cobra meeting to coordinate an “urgent response” to the outage.
Our political correspondent Dominic Penna has the details:
Christine Jardine, the party’s Cabinet Office spokesman, said: “The government must call an urgent Cobra meeting to address the chaos being caused by these IT outages across the country.
”The public needs to be reassured that the disruption to their travel or their desperately needed GP appointments will be minimised.
”Getting critical infrastructure up and running again must be priority number one. The National Cyber Security Centre should also be working with small businesses and other organisations to help them deal with the outage.”
Ms Jardine said the outage “once again lays bare the need to improve our digital infrastructure” and “truly modernise” the economy to prevent further incidents in future.
10:03 AM BST
Heathrow ‘implementing contingency plans to minimise impact’
A spokesman for Heathrow said the airport was implementing contingency plans to “minimise” the impact of the global IT outage.
The spokesman said:
Microsoft is currently experiencing a global outage which is impacting select systems at Heathrow.
Flights are operational and we are implementing contingency plans to minimise any impact on journeys.
Passengers are advised to check with their airline for the latest flight information.
10:01 AM BST
Pharmacies warn prescriptions face delays
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) confirmed the IT outage is disrupting community pharmacies.
A spokesman said:
We’re aware that due to global IT outages that services in community pharmacies, including the accessing of prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries, are disrupted today.
We urge patients to be patient whilst visiting their pharmacy.
We’re urgently raising this issue with the NHS England.
09:58 AM BST
Computers hit by ‘blue screen of death’
The so-called “blue screen of death” has swept across computers around the world as part of the global outage.
The screen tells users that the computer has “run into a problem and needs to restart”.
This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
Not with a bang, but with an update to a system file that brings the blue screen of death to every machine around the world.
— Grady Booch (@Grady_Booch) July 19, 2024
09:38 AM BST
CrowdStrike shares plunge as global IT systems go down
Shares in cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike plunged as much as 14pc in premarket trading after the company said it was aware of “crashes” related to Windows computer, writes economics editor Szu Ping Chan.
CrowdStrike makes software designed to protect computers from cyber attacks.
Microsoft shares were down by almost 3pc.
Both companies are listed on Wall Street.
09:35 AM BST
‘Buggy’ update could be behind IT outage
A “buggy” update to one of global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s products may have been the cause of the global outage, according to an academic.
Toby Murray, associate professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at The University of Melbourne, Australia, said:
CrowdStrike Falcon has been linked to this widespread outage.
CrowdStrike is a global cyber security and threat intelligence company. Falcon is what is known as an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platform, which monitors the computers that it is installed on to detect intrusions – hacks – and respond to them.
That means that Falcon is a pretty privileged piece of software in that it is able to influence how the computers it is installed on behave.
For example, if it detects that a computer is infected with malware that is causing the computer to communicate with an attacker, then Falcon could conceivably block that communication from occurring. If Falcon is suffering a malfunction then it could be causing a widespread outage for two reasons – one: Falcon is widely deployed on many computers, and two: because of Falcon’s privileged nature.
Falcon is a bit like anti-virus software: it is regularly updated with information about the latest online threats (so it can better detect them). We have certainly seen anti-virus updates in the past causing problems. It is possible that today’s outage may have been caused by a buggy update to Falcon.
09:32 AM BST
Luton Airport running manual systems amid outage
Luton Airport said the global IT outage is affecting some airlines and operations are continuing with manual systems.
On X, formerly Twitter, the airport posted:
We are aware of an ongoing global IT issue that is impacting check-in and boarding procedures for some airlines.
We have additional staff on hand to support and operations are continuing with manual systems.
Passengers are advised to check with their airlines for flight updates.
09:26 AM BST
Air passengers left stranded amid travel chaos
The pictures of unhappy travellers are coming in thick and fast now as airlines grapple with increasing delays:
09:21 AM BST
Passengers given hand-written boarding passes
Air passengers in India are being given hand-written boarding passes as airlines grapple with the IT outage.
Here is a shot of a ticket from low-cost airline IndiGo:
09:19 AM BST
Microsoft 365 taking ‘mitigation actions’
Microsoft 365 say they are investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access apps and services.
“Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions,” they said on X this morning.
“We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue.”
It comes amid reports of widespread IT outages affecting airlines, broadcasters and banks.
09:15 AM BST
GP appointment booking systems down
GP appointment booking systems are down following the global tech outage, the NHS has confirmed.
Our health editor Laura Donnelly has the latest:
Health officials said family doctors are struggling to access systems, with some practices saying they are unable to book appointments.
The main IT system used by primary care is understood to have been hit by the problems, which have seen airports, banks and television channels knocked offline.
GP surgeries hit by the outage have said the issue “will have a big effect”.
09:12 AM BST
999 unaffected by outage
People are still able to phone 999 in an emergency, despite the IT outage disrupting GP services.
An NHS spokesman said: “We’re not currently aware of 999 services being affected.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “No issues that we’re aware of for the Met.”
09:10 AM BST
Gatwick warns passengers ‘may experience some delays’
London Gatwick airport has said “passengers may experience some delays” due to the global outage.
On X, formerly Twitter, the airport posted:
We are affected by the global Microsoft issues, so passengers may experience some delays while checking in and passing through security.
Passengers should still arrive for their normal check-in time.
We apologise for any inconvenience and are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
09:09 AM BST
Pubs, bookies and football clubs hit by outage
Pubs, bookmakers and football clubs have also been hit by the outage.
Fran Ivens and Joe Wright have the latest:
J D Wetherspoon confirmed the global system outage has disabled the pub chain’s app.
A spokesman said: “We can confirm the Wetherspoons app is currently not working. We are working hard to resolve the situation. However, customers can pay for their food and drinks in cash.”
Ladbrokes, one the UK’s largest betting firms, also reported issues.
A post on its website said customers were unable to place any bets.
A post on X reads: “We’re experiencing some tech issues this morning that have affected the site. I’m sorry for any inconvenience caused. Rest assured, our Technical Support Team is working to fix this as a top priority, but for now, we kindly ask that you try again later.”
Blackburn Rovers football club also said it had been affected.
The Championship side posted on X:
💻 Due to a global third-party system outage, some online services, including our ticketing platform, are experiencing disruption today.
This is completely out of the Club’s control and is a network-wide issue across the world, which we are monitoring closely.#Rovers 🔵⚪️
— Blackburn Rovers (@Rovers) July 19, 2024
09:04 AM BST
Sky News back on air
Sky News has come back on air after its broadcasting was halted by the global IT outage.
09:00 AM BST
Edinburgh Airport hit by longer waiting times
Edinburgh Airport said the IT outage is causing longer waiting times.
A spokesman said:
An IT system outage means wait times are longer than usual at the airport.
This outage is affecting many other businesses, including airports.
Work is ongoing to resolve this and our teams are on hand to assist where we can. Passengers are thanked for their patience.
08:56 AM BST
GP appointments hit by IT outage
Patients have been left unable to make appointments with their GP as a result of the global outage impacting IT systems.
GP surgeries have said they are unable to access patient records.
We are currently experiencing issues with our computer systems and are unable to access any patients records. This is a national issue and engineers are currently working to resolve this. If you have an appointment, please still attend as normal.
— Sunlight Group Practice (@SunlightGP) July 19, 2024
Just tried to book a GP appointment and their systems are down due to a “national” issue
— Chris Blake (@_ChrisBlake) July 19, 2024
GP practice can’t access patients’ notes so no routine appointments.
— Penny Morgan 3.5% #FBPE 💙 Woke 🇺🇦🇧🇪 (@Penelope_ladyMo) July 19, 2024
08:47 AM BST
Rail commuters across Britain face cancellations over “network wide” IT problem
National Rail has warned commuters to expect delays and cancellations as a result of this morning’s IT outage, which is impacting train companies across the UK.
In a post on National Rail’s website, it warned of a “network wide IT issue affecting a number of train operators services this morning”.
Avanti West Coast, Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, London Northwestern, Lumo, Northern, Southern, Thameslink, TransPennine and West Midlands were all impacted.
National Rail said:
There are currently widespread IT issues across the entire network,” . “IT teams are investigating to determine the root cause of the problem.
As a result, some train operators are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice train cancellations.
Additional, other key systems including real-time customer information platforms, are also affected.
08:44 AM BST
Train passengers warned to expect delays
Britain’s biggest train company has warned passengers to expect disruption due to “widespread IT issues”.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) – parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern – issued an alert on the brands’ social media channels.
The message stated:
We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network.
Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem.
We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks.
Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected.
We will provide additional updates when we can. In the meantime, please regularly check your journey before you travel.
GTR carries more passengers and has more trains and staff than any other operator in Britain.
08:42 AM BST
IT expert says outage may be biggest in history
A world-renowned cyber security expert has said Friday morning’s global crash may be “the largest IT outage in history”.
Troy Hunt, an Australian computer expert who runs the website HaveIBeenPwned, who is something of a celebrity in the security world, said: “I don’t think it’s too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history.”
In a post on X, he added: “The financial impact of this is already hard to fathom.”
Something super weird happening right now: just been called by several totally different media outlets in the last few minutes, all with Windows machines suddenly BSoD’ing (Blue Screen of Death). Anyone else seen this? Seems to be entering recovery mode: pic.twitter.com/DxdLyA9BLA
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) July 19, 2024
08:41 AM BST
Queues forming at Adelaide Airport
08:38 AM BST
Microsoft cyber security technology in the firing line over outage
A software problem with a piece of cyber security technology, called CrowdStrike, appears to be to blame for the global IT outage.
Our senior technology reporter Matthew Field has the latest:
The specific piece of technology, CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor, is used to protect against hacking threats, but engineers were quick to blame a problem with the system for causing the massive outage.
The issue mostly seems to be impacting PCs running on Windows 10 software.
CrowdStrike is one of the world’s largest cyber security technology companies – valued at over $80bn – whose tools are used by businesses around the planet.
Its typical technology is known as endpoint detection and response – a type of antivirus – used to deal with hacking threats.
These products are updated regularly to deal with potential new cyber treats and often automatically add new tools to your PC.
Troy Hunt, a cyber security expert, added in a post on X that CrowdStrike’s tools often have “privileged” access on PCs, meaning they have broad control over the machines to try and remove threats.
However, he added that “also means that if something goes wrong with an update, it’s able to catastrophically nuke your machine”.
08:35 AM BST
Australian banks report issues with transactions
Banks in Australia said the outage was affecting online services and transactions.
An alert from Bendigo and Adelaide Bank said:
We are aware of a widespread and global system issue that is impacting online banking and some transactions.
We apologise for any inconvenience. We are investigating and seek to restore service as quickly as possible.
Beyond Bank Australia also said it was “experiencing intermittent issues” and warned customs about potential trouble using cards and online accounts.
08:32 AM BST
Check-in busier at Manchester Airport amid baggage delays
Manchester Airport has said the IT outage is only affecting Swissport, who do some of the ground handling work for a few airlines.
The company is manually checking people in, meaning that check-in for flights served by Swissport is taking a little longer and making those areas busier.
A Manchester Airport spokesman insisted that passengers don’t need to alter their plans, adding “we don’t want people thinking they need to come to the airport earlier because that can cause overcrowding”.
Some retailers have also been affected and cannot take card payments.
08:28 AM BST
Sky News presenters unable to go on air
The presenting team at Sky News is having a cup of tea as they are unable to broadcast:
08:22 AM BST
Supermarket checkouts go down
Over in Australia, customers at supermarkets have been unable to buy their weekly shop as checkouts have been hit by the IT outage.
🚨 BREAKING 🚨
The digital payment system in Australia has CRASHED!
Some shops such as Coles are only accepting physical Australian dollars!
This is why PHYSICAL CASH is essential to economic freedom!
The CASHLESS SOCIETY is a DYSTOPIAN NIGHTMARE which must be STOPPED!
— John Adams (@adamseconomics) July 19, 2024
08:15 AM BST
Emergency services lines ‘down in US states’
Over in the US, there are reports that 911 emergency lines are down in several states.
Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Ohio have reportedly been hit by the global IT outages.
08:13 AM BST
Ryanair warns of long delays
Ryanair has warned travellers they face long delays as a result of the global IT outage.
It told customers:
Affected passengers will be notified and any passengers travelling across the network on Fri 19 July should check their Ryanair app for the latest updates on their flight.
We advise passengers to arrive at the airport three hours in advance of their flight to avoid any disruptions.
We regret any inconvenience caused to passengers by this 3rd party IT issue, which is outside of Ryanair’s control and affect all airlines operating across the network.
08:10 AM BST
London Stock Exhange still running despite outage
UK stock markets are operating as normal but traders are being impacted by issues accessing information on companies.
Harry Brennan has the latest:
The London Stock Exchange confirmed that it was continuing to operate as normal, but said its Regulatory News Services was experiencing a “third party global technical issue”, preventing news from being published on its website.
RNS is used by companies to make regulatory news announcements.
It hosts close to 350,000 announcements each year, with over 75pc of all regulatory and potentially price-sensitive UK company announcements posted there. Clients include the vast majority of Britain’s leading benchmark companies as well as all the leading financial public relations firms and corporate advisers.
It said “technical teams are working to restore the service”.
08:07 AM BST
Sydney Airport warns about delays
Sydney Airport has warned that the “global technical outage” has impacted some airline operations and terminal services.
A global technical outage has impacted some airline operations and terminal services.
Flights are currently arriving and departing however there may be some delays throughout the evening.
We have activated our contingency plans and deployed additional staff to our terminals.…
— Sydney Airport (@SydneyAirport) July 19, 2024
07:58 AM BST
Sky News halts broadcasting amid global tech outage
Sky News has stopped broadcasting as a result of the major tech outage that is disrupting companies around the world.
07:56 AM BST
Global IT outage causes widespread disruption
Television channels, airports and banks around the world have been knocked offline in a massive outage causing Windows computers to suddenly shut down.
Sky News’s breakfast show was not on air on Friday morning, replaced by archive footage.
Downdetector, a website which monitors outages, reported sudden spikes in problems with websites including Microsoft applications, banking websites and airline apps.
On Ryanair’s website, the company urged passengers to arrive at airports three hours early blaming a “third party IT issue, which is outside Ryanair’s control and affect all airlines operating across the network”.
Online, users reported problems as far as Australia, New Zealand, India and Japan, with the UK likely to be heavily impacted as during Friday’s rush hour.
Troy Hunt, a cyber security researcher, said in a post on X that “something super weird happening right now” with individuals around the world complaining their Windows computers were suddenly showing the “blue screen of death” and entering recovery mode.
Cyber security engineers pointed to a problem with CrowdStrike, a piece of antivirus software, which appeared to be causing computers to crash.
Senad Arun, founder of cyber research company Imperum, described the incident as “CrowdStrike Doom’s Day”.
In a post on its website, CrowdStrike said: “CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows related to the Falcon Sensor.”
Travel chaos is sweeping the nation after the major tech outage impacting Microsoft software.
Gatwick Express is warning of delays:
⚠️ We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network. Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem.
We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations,…
— Gatwick Express (@GatwickExpress) July 19, 2024
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