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TOTAL NIGHTMARE
Microsoft outage sees 2,400 flights canceled, 911 lines go down & payment issues erupt in chaos ‘that could last weeks’
The outage has left millions unable to work
A MASSIVE outage has disrupted the lives of millions worldwide with more than 2,400 flights canceled in the US and 911 and payment systems down - and the chaos could last for weeks.
The tech crash, caused by a failed overnight update to Microsoft Windows by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, grounded over a thousand flights that were set to take off Friday morning.
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American Airlines, United, and Delta requested a global ground stop on all flights in the early hours of the morning, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
By Friday afternoon, over 4,700 flights had faced delays and 2,400 flights were canceled in the US, according to .
Thousands of passengers were left stranded at airports amid the cancellations and delays as airline websites went down due to the ongoing outage.
Travelers in Los Angeles and New York were pictured sleeping on jet bridges as the terminals filed with waiting passengers.
What we know so far:
- More than 4,000 flight delays have been reported across the US
- Over 2,400 flights have been canceled
- American Airlines, Delta, and United are among major companies that have been affected
- 911 services and hospitals have also been hit by the issue
- CrowdStrike said the outage was not a cyberattack
- Microsoft has confirmed the underlying issue has been fixed but some services could still be affected
- Major shipping terminals have delayed opening
- New York City and Washington D.C. transport systems were impacted
- Blue "recovery" displays have appeared on screens across the country, from airport terminals to major store billboards
Social media sites have been flooded with furious passengers unable to board their planes as travelers have been pictured sleeping on jetways and lining up at airports across the country.
Microsoft provided an update on the crisis in an X post this morning, saying that the company is taking "mitigation actions" while services see "continuous improvements" after the blackout.
Most read in The US Sun
“We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue.”
CrowdStrike has issued a fix for the update as CEO George Kurtz the incident "is not a security incident or cyberattack."
Microsoft Outage Grounds Flights and Banks
Despite reassurance from Microsoft and CrowdStrike, security pro Al Lakhani told The U.S. Sun that the problems could continue for weeks.
“The fallout from incidents like these can be extensive and prolonged," said Lakhani, the CEO of security firm IDEE.
"In terms of restoring every affected computer to full operation, the recovery could span hours, days, or even weeks."
The tech meltdown is affecting more than flights as millions of computers are left blank with the "screen of death" - including iconic billboards in Times Square in New York City.
New York City's MTA customer information system has also been affected as MTA systems were "temporarily offline due to a worldwide technical outage."
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The outage has affected 911 call centers as emergency services are down across Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Ohio because workers can't access their computers.
reported a growing number of outages with banks and payment services, including Visa, Bank of America, Charles Schwab, TD Bank, and Chase, while the outage persists.
Some businesses, including local supermarkets and gas stations, are asking customers to use cash as debit and credit cards won't work while systems are offline due to the outage.
A convenience store in Greenville, South Carolina, has a sign on the door saying "Cash only. Debit and credit is down company-wide," according to local NBC affiliate
Outage could take 'weeks' to resolve
Tech experts have told The U.S. Sun that even though an official fix has been released for the Microsoft outage, problems related to the blackout will continue to last.
Al Lakhani, CEO of security firm IDEE, said that the issues could persist for weeks.
“The fallout from incidents like these can be extensive and prolonged," Lakhani said.
"In terms of restoring every affected computer to full operation, the recovery could span hours, days, or even weeks.
"This is because it is a supply chain attack. These are particularly damaging because a single compromised software update can impact thousands of organizations globally.
"Leading to severe consequences including service disruptions, theft of intellectual property, and threats to national security.”
Another security expert Adam Pilton told The U.S. Sun that it will take days for bigger businesses to recover.
"Depending upon the size of the organization will determine the recovery time," said Adam, senior cybersecurity expert at Cybersmart, speaking to The U.S. Sun.
"CrowdStrike has released a fix and provided guidance which is working for many users.
"For smaller organizations, this will take hours, for larger organizations this may take days to resolve."
Martin Jartelius, chief security officer at Outpost24, told The U.S. Sun that some affected computers might have to be manually repaired.
"For those impacted, if their systems did not get the erroneous update then that is a positive," Jartelius said.
"If they did get the update, some seem to be able to get up and running and they will fix themselves.
"Others will currently have a workaround to get the good update and have some hands-on support, including boot into safe mode and removing some files, expect this to be done swiftly for any systems that need a high availability.
"But expect the cleanup in IT-departments to potentially drag out over the vacation period.
"So, where it really matters, this should not be too hard to fix, but it will cost time and effort."
Hospitals are also affected by the chaos as reported Mass General Brigham in Boston canceled all elective surgeries due to the outage.
Social Security offices shut down as the Social Security Administration shared in a , "Due to worldwide IT outage, local Social Security offices are closed to the public today.
"Longer wait times on our national 800 number are expected. Some online services are unavailable at this time. We appreciate your patience while we work to restore services as quickly as possible."
In Rochester, New York, the city's parking, traffic violations, and building/zoning offices are closed today due to the outage, according to local NBC affiliate .
'LARGEST IT OUTAGE IN HISTORY'
Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt predicts that Friday's outage will make history.
"I don’t think it’s too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history," he wrote on X.
"This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it's actually happened this time."
A 12-hour timelapse of American Airlines, Delta, and United air traffic by showed the gravity of the outage as the US saw eerily quiet skies when the three airlines forced a nationwide ground stop.
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IN THE AIR
American Airlines said in a statement that the airline was working with the tech company to fix the problem and apologized to fliers.
"We’re aware of a technical issue with CrowdStrike that is impacting multiple carriers," American Airlines said.
"American is working with CrowdStrike to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience."
What is CrowdStrike?
THE global cyber outage affecting TV channels, banks, hospitals, airports and emergency services appears to relate to an issue at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
IT security firm CrowdStrike ran a recorded phone message on Friday - saying it was aware of reports of crashes on Microsoft's Windows operating system relating to its Falcon sensor.
A prerecorded message said: "Thanks for contacting CrowdStrike support. CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows... related to the Falcon sensor."
CrowdStrike, headquartered in Austin, Texas, says it is a global security leader which provides an advanced platform to protect data.
A CrowdStrike update on Friday is said to have caused a critical error in Microsoft operating systems, affecting millions worldwide.
The company regularly updates systems with new anti-virus software.
Cyber expert Troy Hunt told Australian TV network Seven: “It looks like they've pushed a bad update, which is presently nuking every machine that takes it.”
A United spokesperson also blamed an unnamed "third-party software" and said the "outage is impacting computer systems worldwide."
Delta cited a "vendor technology issue" for the chaos and told impacted fliers to check their Fly Delta app and text messages for notifications.
The FAA told airborne flights to stay in the air while other planes were kept on the tarmac at the height of the mayhem.
The outage hit smaller flight carriers as well - Allegiant Air and Spirit Airlines grounded flights this morning.
San Francisco's international airport was majorly hit across the board as all its flights were suspended, according to CBS affiliate .
One traveler shared a picture to social media of the chaotic scene in a San Francisco terminal as passengers waited to board their flights.
'Trail of destruction'
By Jamie Harris Assistant Technology and Science Editor at The Sun
This is probably one of the biggest outages that I have witnessed in my career as a technology journalist.
It’s been so far reaching, affecting multiple countries and multiple sectors, from aviation, healthcare, travel, rail travel, media.
So this is a really huge outage and it's been going on now for several hours.
We've seen Sky News go off air and other broadcasters struggling, banking systems, GP, systems, airlines - you name it.
People across the world have been saying that they've been getting the dreaded “blue screen of death” which we've all seen before and is not ideal for people logging into work on a Friday morning.
Glitches happen all the time and are usually brief but with this one, it has gone on for hours. Nobody really seems to know when it's going to end and so there's just a trail of destruction in its path.
The situation just shows how dependent we are on technology these days.
Experts are still trying to ascertain exactly what caused this – and crucially how to fix it - but many have pointed the blame at US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
Part of the problem is so many large companies are dependent on so few companies to manage IT resources.
So if one goes down, then essentially, it's a domino effect, and everyone else suffers.
The picture showed flight destination screens at the airport simply having a blue Microsoft screen with a "recovery" message instead of flight information.
"SFO computer system outage is grounding lots of United flights right now," the person said.
Meanwhile, some Apple users are rejoicing that they've been left unscathed during the outage because they use Mac instead of Windows.
EXPERT WARNING
Cybersecurity experts have warned people and companies that "we must learn" to avoid another incident like this, The U.S. Sun has previously reported.
Although CrowdStrike's CEO confirmed this incident was not a tech threat, specialists have warned hackers could potentially shut down systems across the globe in a replicated attack.
Martin Jartelius, Chief Security Officer at Outpost24, exclusively told The U.S. Sun, "This is similar to a supply chain attack.
"If an attacker had backdoored such an update to open systems to attacks or to encrypt them, the exact same systems would have been impacted.
"This is why supply chain attacks and defense have been increasingly important."
PASSENGER PANDEMONIUM
This was not been the only major travel disruption to hit flyers this week.
Frontier, Allegiant Air, and SunCountry, all suffered from a significant Microsoft outage.
These airlines had grounded all of their flights for several hours on Wednesday, as the stop was lifted later that night.
“Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies,” Frontier said in a statement on its website.
“We appreciate your patience.”
Read More on The Sun
GROUNDED
This comes a year after the FAA forced all domestic flights to stay on the tarmac, which caused more than 4,000 delays, The U.S. previously reported.
This system failure had caused the biggest travel disruption in the U.S. since 9/11.
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