Cause of IT outage which has hit Ryanair, Sky News and more found

CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm, confirmed the glitch involving its tech caused huge outages across the UK and globally, which led to a Cobra meeting being held

Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike has issued a statement following a technical glitch involving their technology, which resulted in significant outages worldwide.

Airports, railways, GP surgeries, banks and TV stations both in the UK and globally experienced disruptions on Friday when their systems were abruptly forced offline. Among those affected by the tech issues were budget airline Ryanair, train operator Avanti, and TV channel Sky News, while NHS GP services also suffered severe impacts, reports the Mirror.

CrowdStrike, a provider of security protection for cloud software including the Microsoft 365 platform, identified a corrupted update file on Windows machines as the source of the problems and confirmed they are now implementing a solution. CEO George Kurtz stated: “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.

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“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 organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilised to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.” Microsoft earlier confirmed that it was aware of and fixing issues with its widely used cloud platform, Azure.

Across the UK, GP surgeries reported being unable to book appointments or access patient records as their EMIS Web system went down. The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) also said “services in community pharmacies, including the accessing of prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries, are disrupted today”. TV channels Sky News and CBBC were meanwhile forced off-air by the issue.

Around the world, banks, supermarkets and other major institutions reported computer issues disrupting services, while many businesses have been left unable to take digital payments. Systems have been down at London Gatwick, leaving barcodes unable to be read by machines, with Berlin airport among many in Europe citing delays due to a “technical fault”. United and Delta – which are all based in the US – have issued a “global ground stop” on all of their flights.

A crisis Cobra meeting was convened in Whitehall to deliberate on the impact of the massive outage on the UK, with the sessions led by top officials. Pat McFadden, Cabinet Office minister, said: “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 (Cabinet Office Briefing Room) response system.”