MASSIVE global Microsoft operating system outage

[Anthea]

Massive worldwide Microsoft outages

Major IT outages are hitting industries across the world, with airlines, broadcasters and supermarkets affected

Queues are growing at many airports; American Airlines is one of several airlines to ground flights - it says problems are due to a Crowdstrike cybersecurity software issue

Microsoft says it's taking mitigation action, but the cause of the outage hasn't been confirmed

In the UK, trains, shops, airports, pharmacies and some GP surgeries in England have been affected

Earlier, Sky News was unable to broadcast live

Majority of GP practices affected - NHSpublished at 10:25

NHS England says the global power outage is affecting most GP practices - but there is currently no known impact on emergency services.

Morrisons says payment problems 'resolved'published at 10:21

The UK supermarket earlier said it had problems in some stores - but now says they're "resolved".

Mallorca airport hit by three-hour queuespublished at 10:14

A family from Bristol is stuck at Palma de Mallorca Airport after the IT outage caused delays at check-in desks.

Jemma Wheeler, 30, says her family of five has been standing in the same queue for three hours.

"We only came for a five-night short break," she tells the BBC. "We thought it was a quick, two-hour flight and we would be back in no time to enjoy the nice weather at home."

A forlorn wait at Luton airportpublished at 10:11

I’m sitting somewhat forlornly at London Luton airport, where my Wizz Air flight to Vilnius was supposed to depart at 08:00 this morning.

As we waited to board, news of the global IT outage rippled across the phones of passengers in the queue. And it soon became apparent that our travel plans would be disrupted.

A check-in staffer later confirmed all IT systems were down, and the flight wouldn’t be taking off for a while. He said the airline was working towards manual check-ins.

As for how long that would take, a shrug said it all.

Trains still running in the UK - but multiple operators hitpublished at 10:08

In the UK, trains are still running, with one major operator saying it is "not disastrous".

But there are delays and cancellations reported across the network - National Rail says the following operators are affected:

Avanti West Coast, c2c, Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, London Northwestern Railway, Lumo, Merseyrail, Northern, Southern, Thameslink, Transport for Wales, TransPennine Express, and West Midlands Railway
British betting firm Ladbrokes reports problemspublished at 10:01

Ladbrokes says: "You might have seen the news about the global technical issue affecting airlines, banks etc.

"Unfortunately we're experiencing this too. We're working hard to resolve the issue but don't know when it will be fixed.

"Thanks for being so patient and apologies for the inconvenience."

Pharmacy services disruptedpublished at 09:57

A spokesperson for the UK's National Pharmacy Association says: "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."

In the UK, Morrisons having payment problemspublished at 09:55

Morrisons says it is having "some issues" with payment in some of their shops, and it is working hard to resolve it.

Sky News is back on airpublished at 09:52

Sky News is now back on air, after struggling to broadcast this morning.

CBBC seems to be the only major channel still experiencing problems.

Flight handling impossible, says KLMpublished at 09:51

Further to that airline roundup - in the past half hour, Dutch airline KLM says flight handling is currently "impossible". , external

KLM has "largely" had to suspend operations, but it is "working hard to resolve the problem".

"We realise that this is very inconvenient for our customers and staff, particularly in the midst of the summer holiday season," it says.

More airlines and airports affected across Europepublished at 09:49

Queues at Barajas airport, MadridImage source, Reuters
Image caption,

Queues at Barajas airport, Madrid

Both German airline Lufthansa and SAS Airline, based in Scandinavia, are the latest airlines to report disruption.

Lufthansa says that, at the moment, the company's booking retrieval may be limited, but a solution is being worked on.

And SAS says its services are fully operational, but "technical issues" are impacting its booking engine.

Prague Airport has also been affected by the check-in system outage and says some departures from the Czech capital are delayed.

German airline Eurowings is also reporting that its online check-in is currently not working.

And in Northern Ireland, Belfast International airport says the outage is impacting the airport, but flights remain operational.

Switzerland's largest airport in Zurich also says planes are not allowed to land.

Two hospitals in Germany cancel non-emergency operationspublished at 09:42

Two hospitals in the northern German cities of Luebeck and Kiel have cancelled elective operations scheduled for Friday.

Patient care and emergency services will go ahead as normal, the University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein adds.

Paris Olympics IT systems affected published at 09:40

The organising committee for the Paris Olympics says its IT operations have also been impacted.

But - with just a week to go before the Games begin - the committee says it has contingency plans, according to Reuters news agency.

What is the latest?published at 09:39

A major problem with computer systems is disrupting transport, broadcasters, hospitals and other sectors across the world

Flights have been grounded and airports worldwide are reporting delays

American Airlines says Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity company, is the source of the tech issues

In the US state of Alaska, police warn the 911 system may be unavailable

In Poland, the Baltic Hub terminal asks ships not to send their containers there

In the UK, rail companies are "experiencing widespread IT issues" and warning of delays

Some GP practices are struggling to access their records systems, which include online bookings

On TV, Sky News and CBBC have been off air

An error screen and a broken cash point in Hong Kong

Delhi airport goes manualpublished at 09:35

In Delhi, there was very little information available when I arrived at the airport. No electronic terminals were available for check-in and the lines to speak with an agent were long and unwieldy.

We were given blank boarding cards and asked to fill in the information manually. Baggage tags were printed blank and were also entered manually.

After going through security, there is one person at Terminal 3 who is in charge of updating a whiteboard by hand with gate information.

I’m at the gate where the flight is meant to leave from but there are no agents nor is there a plane.

At the gate across from the one I’m at, there is a captain and crew waiting for grounds crew to start the boarding process.

Because everything here is being done manually, things are slow. But this airport remains open.

A whiteboard showing departure times at the international airport in Delhi
United Airlines blames 'third party software' for grounding flightspublished at 09:31

Here's a statement to the BBC from United Airlines, which is the world’s fifth biggest by passenger numbers.

"A third party software outage is impacting computer systems worldwide, including at United.

"While we work to restore those systems, we are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights already airborne are continuing to their destinations."
CBBC is only BBC channel affectedpublished at 09:26

The BBC’s channel for children and teenagers, CBBC, has been down since earlier this morning.

The channel has a message which reads: "Sorry! Something’s gone wrong.

"While we fix it, please go to BBC iPlayer."

BBC channels including BBC One and CBeebies are still on air.

Other broadcasters including ITV and Channel 4 have not been affected, but Sky News has been unable to broadcast.

Barcodes not working at Gatwick airport published at 09:24

Here at Gatwick, barcodes are not working so security checks on boarding passes are being done manually, but security searches are operating normally.

I didn't have baggage to check in, so no delays for me there. But I had to use cash to buy coffees at Starbucks in the airport departures lounge.

I am on an internal flight to Newquay and am on the plane now. It is all on time so far - due to take off at 9.20am.

But we are being warned that it might take time to take off because of backlogs with air traffic control.

Passenger Dean Seddon reports "no movement" at London Gatwick Airport

Poland's largest container terminal 'struggling'published at 09:22

Poland’s largest container terminal, the Baltic Hub in the northern city of Gdansk, is the latest major infrastructure to be affected.

"Pleased be advised that we are struggling at the Baltic Hub with a global Microsoft operating system outage that is hampering terminal operations," the company says.

Baltic Hub has asked companies not to send containers to the port. The hub began operating in 2007 and has the capacity to handle up to 2.9 million containers annually.

American Airlines blames Crowdstrike for outagepublished at 09:20

American Airlines, which is the world's biggest by passenger numbers, tells BBC that no flights are being allowed to take off, and that it is in contact with all flights that are currently in the air.

It says the IT problems are because of a "technical issue with Crowdstrike that is impacting multiple carriers".

The airline says its working with the IT security firm to fix the problem as quickly as possible. The airline carries an average of 578,000 passengers a day.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cnk4jdwp49et

[Anthea]

Crowdstrike: IT issues caused by defect

Here's the full statement from George Kurtz, the CEO of Crowdstrike:

"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 mobilised to ensure the security and stability of Crowdstrike customers."

[Anthea]

No evidence of cyber attack

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The French cybersecurity agency has reported that there is “no evidence” suggesting that the recent global technology outage, which impacted airlines, banks, stock exchanges, and media outlets, was caused by a cyber attack

The agency stated, “The teams are fully mobilized to identify and support the affected institutions in France and to determine the source of this outage.” It added that there is no indication that a cyber attack was responsible for the disruption.

On Friday, users of Microsoft services worldwide, including banks and airlines, experienced widespread outages. This occurred shortly after Microsoft announced that it was working to resolve an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.

The exact cause and scope of the outage remain unclear. However, Microsoft’s updates on its X account suggest that the situation is improving, although outages are still being reported globally.

DownDetector, a website tracking user-reported internet outages, has noted increasing disruptions at Visa, ADT Security, Amazon, and airlines such as Delta and American Airlines.

Australian media reported significant disruptions across airlines, telecom providers, banks, and media outlets due to the loss of access to computer systems. Banks in New Zealand also reported being offline.

Microsoft 365 stated on its X app that the company is “working to reroute affected traffic to alternative systems to mitigate the impact in a more appropriate manner” and is “noticing a positive trend in service availability.”

Australian outages reported included several banks, airlines such as Qantas and Virgin Australia, and internet and phone providers like Telstra.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/35 ... ity-agency

Someone INTENTIONALLY put a bug in the software and because Microsoft is so badly configured it was unable to deal with the problem which spread like wildfire throughout Microsoft

Personally, I believe this could be a TEST-RUN by people seeking to do more permanent damage to the world's computer dependent infrastructure

I also believe that only a complete idiot would rely on Microsoft for anything important