Transport, healthcare, businesses, and other sectors worldwide are being disrupted by a major IT problem.
The issues started with an update rolled out by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike that made all Microsoft Windows computers display a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) error, unable to be fixed by a reboot.
Major IT problem: Aviation hit the hardest
Major problems were reported at airports and on European railways.
The IT systems that stopped functioning were connected to passenger information and ticketing services. Aviation analyst Cirium reported that at least 1,390 flights have been cancelled worldwide. That number is likely to rise.
The UK’s national rail provider Network Rail said a number of train operating companies have been 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, West Midlands Railway are listed on the company’s website.
In Belgium, a similar issue has struck national train operator SNC.
The largest railway operator in Great Britain announced on Friday that it is affected by IT problems that lead to potential last-minute cancellations, AFP reports.
“We are currently experiencing extensive IT problems on our network,” the four railway companies in the Govia Thameslink Railway group announced on social networks. “Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the issue,” they explained, adding that “potential last-minute cancellations” are expected as companies are unable to access certain systems. “(…) key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected,” the announcement added, urging passengers to inform themselves before travel.
⚠️ We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network. Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem.
We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations,…
— Thameslink (@TLRailUK) July 19, 2024
Microsoft said the “underlying cause” that caused the global outage “has been fixed,” adding that residual impact is still affecting some services. According to IT experts, the issue will take at least a few days to sort out.
CrowdStrike is a company that provides cloud-based online security solutions. Its software is used by some of the largest players in cloud services, including Amazon’s AWS.
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