A mass IT outage has affected businesses, airlines, banks and hospitals around the world.
The outage, which spread widely on Friday morning, saw Microsoft Windows PCs impacted with a “blue screen of death” appearing after an update from global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
CrowdStrike’s boss said on X there had been a defective software update for Microsoft Windows hosts and a fix was deployed – but experts have said it could take “weeks” for all systems to be back to normal.
Microsoft has said a resolution for Windows devices affected by the outage was “forthcoming” and in a statement issued on Friday night, urged affected customers “to follow guidance provided by CrowdStrike”.
Follow live: Major services affected by outage globally
Here is a rundown of how the outage spread, and what we know about it so far.
CrowdStrike boss points to ‘defect’
At 10.45am (UK time) on Friday, the CrowdStrike chief executive issued a statement saying a “defect” was found in “a single content update for Windows hosts”.
George Kurtz added “this is not a security incident or cyber attack” and said the “issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed”.
Issues still persisted however, and customers said the problems came after an update to the code of its Falcon Sensor software.
The sensor “blocks attacks on your systems while capturing and recording activity as it happens to detect threats fast”, according to the cyber security firm’s website.
Users reported that their Windows PCs crashed to the “blue screen of death” after the software update.
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Flights grounded in USA
First reports from Australia
The first reports of IT issues came overnight from Australia, when a spokesperson for the country’s home affairs minister Clare O’Neil said the outage appeared to be related to an issue at CrowdStrike.
On X, the office of the national cyber security coordinator Michelle McGuinness described it as a “large-scale technical outage,” but said there was no indication it was a cyber security incident.
Australian firms were also the first to report a variety of issues. Supermarket chain Woolworths said its payment systems went down, while the National Australia Bank was also affected.
Airlines Virgin Australia and Jetstar were forced to delay or cancel flights, as information screens went blank at Sydney Airport.
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‘This is not cyber attack’
Outages spread across globe
A spike in outages was then recorded across a number of websites and services just before 6am in the UK, according to internet tracking website Downdetector.
NHS England said in a statement at 10.20am the outage was “causing disruption in the majority of GP practices” as bookings could not be recorded using the service’s EMIS computer system.
It added there was no known impact on 999 calls or emergency services.
Northern Ireland’s Department of Health said two thirds of its GP practices have been impacted.
Sky News was unable to broadcast for a short time on Friday morning.
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Airlines and airports in the UK, US, India and elsewhere also faced severe delays and hundreds of cancellations over the issue.
Some passengers were left standing in queues outside terminals for hours as check-in systems, eGates and departure boards failed to work.
Cancellations soon hit and as of 8pm, 5,078 flights had been grounded worldwide – which equates to 4.6% of all scheduled flights globally, according to an aviation analytics company.
Cirium Data also said 167 flights that should have left UK airports have been cancelled so far – which is 5.4% of departures – while 171 inbound arrivals were cancelled.
A blue error screen at Seattle’s Tacoma Internation Airport. Pic: Reuters
Major train operators TransPennine Express and Govia Thameslink Railway – which operates the Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern brands – were also disrupted in the UK, and people at the Port of Dover were told to expect longer waiting times.
How long will it take to fix?
On Friday afternoon, CrowdStrike chief executive Mr Kurtz said “a fix has been deployed” – but he has not given an exact time frame, instead saying it will be “some time” before systems are restored.
Meanwhile, an IT expert has warned it could be “weeks” until everything is back to normal.
Adam Leon Smith of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, 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.”