Selangor Journal
People stand near blacked-out digital billboards at Times Square following a global IT outage in New York City, the United States, on July 19, 2024. — Picture by REUTERS

Global tech outage eases after widespread disruption, new focus seen on risks

KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 — Services from airlines to healthcare, shipping and finance were coming back online yesterday after a mistake in a security software update sparked hours-long global computer systems outages, another incident highlighting the vulnerability of the world’s interconnected technologies.

After the outage was resolved, companies dealt with backlogs of delayed and cancelled flights and medical appointments, missed orders, and other issues that could take days to resolve. Businesses also face questions about how to avoid future blackouts triggered by technology meant to safeguard their systems.

A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, one of the largest operators in the industry, triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off the air, and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking. Global shipper FedEx faced major disruptions, and some moderators who police content on Meta’s Facebook were hit.

CrowdStrike is not a household name but it is an US$83 billion (RM389 billion) company with over 20,000 subscribers around the world including Amazon.com and Microsoft.

Its chief exective officer George Kurtz said on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that a defect was found “in a single content update for Windows hosts” that affected Microsoft customers.

“We are deeply sorry for the impact that we have caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this, including our company,” he told NBC News.

CrowdStrike has one of the largest shares of the highly competitive cybersecurity market, leading some industry analysts to question whether control over such operationally critical software should remain with just a handful of companies.

The outage also raised concerns that many organisations are not well prepared to implement contingency plans when a single point of failure, such as an IT system or a piece of software within it, goes down. But these outages will happen again, experts say, until more contingencies are built into networks and organizations introduce better back-ups.

CrowdStrike shares closed down 11 per cent. Its rivals SentinelOne shares closed up eight per cent, and Palo Alto Networks closed up two per cent. Microsoft closed down 0.7 per cent.

Microsoft’s security and compliance business head Ann Johnson said the scale of the outage was massive, but not yet quantifiable because it involved only systems that were running CrowdStrike software.

“We have hundreds of engineers right now working directly with CrowdStrike to get customers back online,” she said.

President Joe Biden was briefed on the outage, a White House official said. The United States (US) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said it observed hackers using the outage for phishing and other malicious activities.

US Customs and Border Protection said it was experiencing processing delays and working to mitigate issues related to international trade and travel. The Dutch and United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministries also reported disruptions.

“This event is a reminder of how complex and intertwined our global computing systems are and how vulnerable they are.

“CrowdStrike and Microsoft will have a lot of work to do to make sure that it will not allow other systems and products to cause this kind of failure in the future,” said D.A. Davidson senior software analyst Gil Luria.

Wall Street’s main indexes fell yesterday, deepening a sell-off driven by tech stocks and mixed earnings. The Cboe Volatility index, known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” hit its highest level since early May, and the dollar climbed as the worldwide cyber outage unnerved investors.

United Airlines employees wait by a departures monitor displaying a blue error screen, also known as the “Blue Screen of Death”, inside Terminal C in Newark International Airport after United Airlines and other airlines grounded flights due to a worldwide tech outage caused by an update to CrowdStrike’s “Falcon Sensor” software which crashed Microsoft Windows systems, in Newark, New Jersey, the United States, on July 19, 2024. — Picture by REUTERS

Thousands of Flights Cancelled

Air travel was immediately hit because carriers depend on smooth scheduling, which, when interrupted, can ripple into lengthy delays. Out of more than 110,000 scheduled commercial flights on Friday, 5,000 were cancelled globally, and more are expected, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Delta Air Lines was one of the hardest hit, with 20 per cent of its flights cancelled, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. The US carrier said it expected additional delays and cancellations potentially through the weekend.

Airports from Los Angeles to Singapore, Amsterdam and Berlin said airlines were checking in passengers with handwritten boarding passes, causing delays.

Banks and financial services companies warned customers of disruptions, and traders across markets spoke of problems executing transactions. Insurers could face a raft of business interruption claims.

US healthcare providers reported that outages were affecting call centres, patient portals and other operations. Mass General Brigham in Boston said it was treating only urgent cases, while Tufts Medical Center warned that patients might experience delays or need to be rescheduled.

In the United Kingdom, booking systems used by doctors were offline, posts on X by medical officials said, while Sky News, one of the country’s major broadcasters, was taken off the air.

As the day progressed, more companies reported a return to normal service, including Spanish airport operator Aena, US carriers United Airlines and American Airlines, and Australia’s Commonwealth Bank.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said system issues appeared to be resolving and transportation would hopefully be back to normal by Saturday.

— Reuters

A drone view shows cars lined up to cross into the United States across the Paso del Norte bridge after a global technological disruption that caused a delay at the international crossing in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on July 19, 2024. — Picture by REUTERS

Top Picks

Police suffer over RM3 mln in losses due to early monsoon wave disasters

Editor Selangor Journal

Unemployed man charged with matricide

Editor Selangor Journal

Rice: Floods wipe out potential output of 5.3 mln bags

Editor Selangor Journal