Transport agencies, businesses, hospitals and governments were rushing Saturday to get all their systems back online after extended disruptions caused by a widespread power outage. Widespread technology failures.
The biggest ongoing impact is air travel: Airlines canceled thousands of flights on Friday, many planes and crew are now in the wrong locations, while airports continue to face check-in and security issues. As of about 10:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday, flight tracking service FlightAware listed more than 33,000 delays and more than 2,700 cancellations on its website.
American Airlines and United Airlines announced Saturday that the majority of their flights have been restored and resumed.
At the heart of this massive mess is CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company that provides software to many companies around the world.The company said the issue arose when a flawed update was applied to computers running Microsoft Windows, and that the outage was not caused by a security incident or cyberattack.
A Microsoft outage caused by a CrowdStrike software update has once again revealed a familiar, and scary, screen to many Windows users. It is unofficially labeled ” “Blue Screen of Death” This indicates that your computer system is down.
Microsoft said 8.5 million devices running its Windows operating system were affected by the outage, which affected consumers and businesses around the world, including airlines, banks, healthcare providers, telecommunications companies, retail stores and even a sign in New York City's Times Square.
In a blog post published Saturday morning, Microsoft said it had taken steps to keep people informed and help affected customers, including partnering with CrowdStrike to automate the development of a solution, sharing instructions on how to fix the issue, and deploying “hundreds of Microsoft engineers and experts to work directly with customers to restore service.”
“We currently estimate that the CrowdStrike update affects 8.5 million Windows devices, or less than 1% of all Windows machines,” Microsoft cybersecurity chief David Weston said in a blog post.
“While this is a small percentage, it reflects the widespread economic and societal impact that CrowdStrike's use by companies that run many essential services has.”
Binh Guan/Reuters
The latest information is as follows:
Germany warns of fraud after major IT outage
BERLIN — Germany's government IT security agency said many companies are still suffering the effects of a widespread technology outage.
“A computer systems failure has caused disruption to a number of business processes and procedures,” the BSI said on its website.
But the department also said Saturday that many affected areas have returned to normal.
The company warned that cybercriminals were trying to take advantage of the situation through phishing, fake websites and other fraudulent activities, and that “unofficial” software code was in the circulation.
The agency said it was not yet clear how the flawed code got into the CrowdStrike software update that allegedly caused the outage.
Austrian doctors call for stronger protection of patient data
In Austria, a leading doctors' association said the global IT outage had exposed the vulnerability of a health care system that relies on digital technology.
“Yesterday's incident highlights how important it is for hospitals to have analog backups to safeguard patient care,” Harald Meyer, vice president of the Austrian Medical Association, said in a statement on the association's website.
The group called on governments to impose high standards on the protection and security of patient data, and for health care providers to train staff and implement systems for crisis management.
“We were fortunate that any problems in Austria were small and short-lived and many areas of healthcare were not affected,” Meyer said.
Britain's transport system is still trying to get back on track
LONDON — Britain's travel and transport industry is struggling to get back on schedule after a global security disaster, with air passengers facing cancellations and delays just as many school students mark the first day of their summer holidays.
Gatwick Airport said the “vast majority” of scheduled flights were due to take off, while Manchester Airport said passengers were being checked in manually and flights could be cancelled at the last minute.
The Port of Dover said it was seeing an influx of evacuated air passengers, with people facing wait times of up to an hour just to enter the port to board a ferry to France.
Meanwhile, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre warned individuals and businesses to be vigilant as “malicious actors” may exploit the outage to launch phishing attacks.
Ciarán Martin, former director of the National Cyber Security Centre, said the worst of the crisis was over. “The nature of the crisis meant that things escalated quickly. It was quickly discovered and effectively stopped.”
He told Sky News that while some businesses would be able to return to normal quickly, other sectors such as aviation would take longer.
“When you're in aviation, you've got people, planes, staff all stranded in the wrong place. So it's going to take days. I'd be surprised if it takes weeks.”
European airports appear to be mostly operating as normal
LONDON — Heathrow Airport, Europe's busiest, said it was busy but operating normally on Saturday. “All systems have been restored and passengers are able to travel smoothly,” the airport said in a statement.
Some 167 flights due to depart from UK airports on Friday were cancelled, along with 171 flights due to travel via land routes.
Meanwhile, flights at Berlin airport departed on or near schedule, German news agency dpa reported, citing an airport spokesman.
Nineteen flights took off in the early hours of Saturday after authorities exempted them from the usual night-time flight ban.
An IT glitch caused 150 of the airport's 552 scheduled flights in and out of the country to be cancelled on Friday, disrupting the plans of thousands of passengers at the start of the German capital's summer holiday season.
Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates canceled hundreds of flights.
DALLAS — Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates had canceled more than a quarter of their East Coast schedules by mid-afternoon Friday, according to aviation data provider Sirium.
More than 1,100 flights were canceled on Delta Air Lines and its affiliates. As of Saturday afternoon, about 40% of the airline's mainline routes were delayed and another 25% were canceled. About 40% of regional routes were canceled, according to FlightAware, with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia remaining the epicenter of the chaos.
About half of United Airlines flights were delayed and another 15% were canceled as of Saturday afternoon, with the airline's hub at Houston seeing the worst delays.
American Airlines has canceled 450 flights, or 7.5% of its total schedule, and is considering Saturday as a recovery day.
Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines, which do not use the Crowdstrike software that caused the global internet outage, have canceled fewer than six flights each.
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How are health systems responding?
Health systems affected by the outages saw their clinics close, surgeries and appointments canceled, and access to patient records restricted.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles said it was making “steady progress” in getting its servers back online and thanked patients for being flexible during the crisis.
“Our teams will continue to work proactively through the weekend to resolve any remaining issues in preparation for the start of the work week,” the hospital said in a statement.
In Austria, a leading doctors' association said the outage exposed the vulnerability of reliance on digital systems. Harald Meyer, vice president of the Austrian Medical Association, said the outage showed the need for hospitals to have analog backups to safeguard patient care.
The organization also called on governments to impose high standards on the protection and security of patient data, and for health care providers to train staff and implement systems for risk management.
“We were fortunate that any problems in Austria were small and short-lived and many areas of healthcare were not affected,” Meyer said.
Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital in northern Germany canceled all elective surgeries on Friday but said on Saturday the system was gradually recovering and that elective procedures could resume by Monday.
Portland, Oregon mayor declares emergency over power outages
PORTLAND, Ore. — Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of emergency Friday after a global internet outage affected more than half of the city's computer systems.
Wheeler said at a news conference that emergency calls were not interrupted, but that dispatchers had to manually track 911 calls with pen and paper for several hours. He said 266 of the city's 487 computer systems were affected.
Border crossings into the U.S. are delayed
SAN DIEGO — People trying to enter the United States from both the north and south found border crossings delayed by internet outages.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, traffic was backed up at the San Ysidro immigration checkpoint on Friday morning, with pedestrians waiting up to three hours to get through.
Even cars carrying passengers approved for U.S. Customer and Border Protection's “Trusted Traveler” program, intended for low-risk passengers, were forced to wait up to 90 minutes. The program, called SENTRI, allows passengers to move through customs and passport control more quickly if they schedule an interview upon arrival in the U.S. and pass a background check.
Meanwhile, at the US-Canada border, Windsor police reported lengthy delays at the Ambassador Bridge and Detroit-Windsor Tunnel checkpoints.
Carolyn Custer/AP
