Update (22/07/24): Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike has taken responsibility for the outage and is in the process of fixing affected systems, although it may take weeks.
Original story (19/07/24): Major IT issues are disrupting the world’s economy and affecting just about every sector. The cause remains unknown, but it first appeared at 6pm ET / 11pm BST on July 18. The current running theory is that it’s related to American cybersecurity company Crowdstrike and Microsoft Windows. Both are investigating and taking “mitigating actions.” So far, a British government security source has told the Reuters news agency that it looks more like a technical issue than a cyber incident.
Microsoft is confident that “the majority of services have now recovered,” according to its Azure status page. “A small subset of services is still experiencing residual impact.” This hasn’t stopped pictures of Windows PC blue screen errors flooded in throughout the globe, playing havoc with banks, stores, and the London Stock Exchange.
Seemingly, UK stores like Iceland and ASDA remain unaffected, as does the Metropolitan Police and UK government. On the flip side, healthcare providers in Germany and the UK are prioritising acute cases only, as appointment systems are down.
As a precaution, some airlines have grounded their planes in London, Edinburgh, Berlin, Sydney, and the United States. Travellers can’t currently check-in due to technical faults and are encouraged to speak with their agents to see the status of their trip.
It’s also delayed several UK trains, as all four Govia Thameslink Railway brands state they 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.”
Media outlets have also been hit hard as communications platforms grind to a halt. In the UK, CBBC and Sky News channels went completely silent, accompanied by messages apologising for the inconvenience.
All in all, this is an unfortunate showcase of how reliant we are on technology and how vulnerable we are when it all goes down. This is particularly emphasised with monopolistic tendencies as one company tends to reign, such as Microsoft in this case. We’ll learn more as the hours tick by and update this story as we do.
