A major IT issue with Microsoft cloud computing services early Friday is currently affecting major airlines, media organizations, businesses, and police departments worldwide.
As the outage impacted Windows PCs, there have been flights grounded and stores and broadcasters offline in a number of countries.
Flights Grounded
Ground stops were issued by American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines on Friday morning due to communication issues.
Representative Eric Swalwell, who is a member of the House subcommittee on cybersecurity, stated that Delta has mandated a “global ground stop.”
“Technology-Related Outage”
“Due to a nationwide technology-related outage,” Alaska State Troopers stated in a Facebook update just before 2.20 a.m., the state’s 911 and non-emergency phone numbers were not working.
In Europe, Brandenburg Airport in Berlin stated that “a technical fault” would cause passenger check-in delays, and Aena, which manages 46 airports in Spain, stated that “an incident in the computer system” could cause delays.
Airport Disruption
There would be delays, according to Sydney Airport, one of Australia’s largest airports.
The Paris airport authority issued a statement stating that “this situation has an impact on the operations of airlines at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports:” despite the fact that its systems were unaffected prior to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games next week.
Delays and Cancellations
According to The Associated Press, “delays in check-in, delays, and the temporary suspension of some flights,” were to be expected in the Paris airports.
The London Stock Exchange blamed a “3rd party global technical issue” for stopping its regulatory news service from posting any new items, and train operators in the United Kingdom also blamed IT outages for Friday morning cancellations.
Healthcare
“The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with a [general practitioner] appointment and patient record system,” the nation’s National Health Service stated in a post on X.
The emergency phone service of the health system was still in operation, according to the statement. Additionally, some British pharmacies are affected.
Israel Reports
Local media report that at least 15 major hospitals in Israel have also been affected.
However, the majority of medical facilities have either resumed normal operations or switched back to manual operations. The country’s ambulance service’s emergency line is also affected.
Blue Screen
When attempting to start their computers, users reported seeing a blue screen.
Numerous websites and supermarket self-service checkouts appear to have been ravaged by the glitch.
Microsoft Response
Early on Friday, Microsoft stated that the issue with its Azure Service and Microsoft 365 apps, including services like the videoconferencing app Teams, had been resolved.
However, businesses in the United States and Europe continued to report issues.
“Residual Impact”
“A small subset of services is still experiencing residual impact,” the business stated.
The outages were caused by a CrowdStrike update, the company told NBC.
News Outlets
News outlets have been affected, including NBC News. The British partner of NBC News, Sky News, was temporarily unable to broadcast live news.
“Sky News have not been able to broadcast live TV this morning, currently telling viewers that we apologise for the interruption. Much of our news report is still available online, and we are working hard to restore all services” was posted to X via Sky News Executive Chairman David Rhodes.
Cyber Security
In Austrailia broadcasters also reported issues in relation to the mass IT outage.
On X, Michelle McGuinness, the nation’s national coordinator for cyber security, posted a statement.
She claims that the issue did not appear to be the result of a cyberattack.
