Global IT outage causes chaos

A massive technology outage has caused chaos in multiple counties, impacting a broad range of services from airlines to financial institutions and media companies.

The cause of the outage is not yet identified yet, but it came hours after Microsoft said it was addressing issues affecting Microsoft 365 apps and services.

The disruption was attributed to a cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, whose software is used by industries around the world to protect against hackers and outside breaches.

The outage has cancelled over 1000 flights globally so far, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

This figure – currently 1,078 – will only get bigger as the knock-on impacts grow.

Airports in Europe warned passengers of potential delays due to IT problems after Berlin’s Berlin Brandenburg Airport experienced a “technical fault”.

Spain’s main airport operator, Aena, stated that operations were being conducted manually due to an “incident” in its IT system.

Apart from that, In the United States, major airlines Delta, United and American Airlines were grounded on Friday morning due to a communication issue.

Similar scenes were reported in Australia, where flight information screens at Sydney airport went blank and self-service checkouts at supermarket chains Woolworths and Coles showed error messages.

Airports in the United Kingdom, Germany, Malaysia and the Philippines also reported disruptions to services.

In Hong Kong, Airport Authority said airlines affected by the outage have switched to manual check-in to keep flight operations intact.

Apart from that, Banks in aforementioned countries also faced difficulties in online services.

Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator said that it was aware of a “large-scale technical outage” affecting numerous business and services across the country.