Global IT Outage: Airport systems operational from 3 am

s the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain.

Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and even CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage.

“We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives.”

The UK Cyber Security Center said they have noticed an increase in phishing attempts around this event.

After a day of flight delays, cancellations and airlines staffers issuing hand-written boarding passes to flyers due to software glitch in the Microsoft Windows-based operating systems, the operations returned to normalcy at Chennai airport on Saturday morning.

Air India, on Saturday, said that none of its flights was cancelled due to the massive CrowdStrike-Microsoft outage, barring some delays due to the impact of the outage on airport services.

Hundreds of flights including those by Indigo, Air India, SpiceJet and Akasa Air were delayed and several were cancelled due to the Microsoft Windows outage.

“We confirm that none of Air India flights on 19 July was cancelled on account of the worldwide outage of travel systems, though there were some delays due to the impact of the outage on airport services,” an Air India spokesperson said.

Air India said that its own “resilient IT infrastructure remained unaffected yesterday and continues to function as normal.”

At Delhi Airport, more than 400 flights were delayed and over 50 were cancelled, as per data by flightradar24.

The stock market exchanges released a joint statement on Saturday of all exchanges on the global outrage of Microsoft systems.
The Indian exchanges have stated that all stock market exchanges in India were not much affected by the outrage and functioned without any impact.

"On July 19, 2024, there was a global outage of Microsoft Systems. This outage has been reported to have caused disruptions across various sectors globally. In India, all Exchanges and Clearing Corporations functioned without any impact" said a joint statement by Indian stock exchanges.

We confirm that none of the Air India flights on 19 July were cancelled on account of the worldwide outage of travel systems, though there were some delays due to the impact of the outage on airport services. Air India’s own, resilient IT infrastructure remained unaffected yesterday and continues to function as normal, says Air India Spokesperson

Civil aviation ministry on Saturday in an update notification said "Since 3 AM, airline systems across airports have started working normally. Flight operations are now running smoothly. While there is a backlog due to yesterday's disruptions, it is gradually being cleared. By noon today, we expect all issues to be resolved.

We are constantly monitoring operations at our airports and coordinating with airlines to ensure travel readjustments and refunds are managed. We thank you for your patience."

A passenger said they faced a lot of problems because of the outrage, adding that he had not slept the whole night.

"I was travelling from Mumbai to Bengaluru yesterday. The flight got cancelled...Although we were provided with the service, but they did not accommodate us. We had to wait for the whole night and have not slept for the whole night," the passenger said.

A passenger at Delhi airport said that most of the flights are delayed.

"I am travelling to London, and my flight is delayed by half an hour at least. There is a long queue outside the airport. Most of the flights are delayed," he added.

Meanwhile, Chennai Airport flights are disrupted, and air traffic is affected due to the blue screen error for the second day.

A passenger named Prabakaran who came to catch a flight to the Maldives said he is clueless about where to stay.

"From tomorrow (Sunday), my work permit gets over, so I am in a must-go situation to go to the Maldives today (Saturday), but due to the cancelled flight, I have been asked to go tomorrow. I am clueless about where to stay and about job assurance," he said.

Another passenger at Chennai International Airport said, "I am a medical doctor from Sri Lanka. I was to go to Bhubaneswar to give a lecture, but yesterday night my flight got cancelled. Then today morning, I couldn't find a flight back to Bhubaneswar. So I'm going back to Sri Lanka, but now I cannot get a flight, so I'm stuck here."

Hong Kong International Airport has resumed normal operations, Chinese state media said on Saturday, after a mistake in a security software update sparked hours-long outages in global computer systems.
The massive IT outage on Friday affected numerous industries ranging from banks to media companies, and services have been coming back online after the outage was resolved.

Airlines' passenger check-in systems, which had been affected by the global outage, have returned to normal, CCTV said in a Weibo post, citing Airport Authority Hong Kong.

The airport authority had said on Friday that affected airlines had switched to manual check-in and flight operations had not been affected.

Globally, 5,000 out of 110,000 scheduled commercial flights were cancelled on Friday.

Some information systems at Exelon Corp and its local electric and natural gas utilities were affected by the global tech outage, the US power company said on Friday.

Exelon, which is based in Chicago and is one of the largest electric companies in the United States, said the outages were limited to servers and some computers and did not cause any new customer outages or affect bill payments.

"As a result of a third-party worldwide technology issue, we have implemented processes to continue to support operations, including processing and responding to electric and natural gas emergencies and outages safely and reliably," Exelon said in a statement. "We are continuing to assess the impact of this third-party event."

Several US power utilities, including one run by the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, reported IT issues in connection with worldwide cyber outages across numerous industries following an update by CrowdStrike for Microsoft Windows hosts.

The unprecedented Microsoft outage saw some top companies in India hit ‘Code Red’ no sooner than the computer systems started collapsing as IT managers scrambled to protect the systems from a potential cyberattack.

Companies across the board saw disruption in services and these include automobile makers, retail giants, banks, and even IT companies. However, the impact was not severe and remained localised for many.

Services from airlines to healthcare, shipping and finance were coming back online on Friday 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 were dealing with backlogs of delayed and canceled 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 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.

A faulty software update caused technological havoc worldwide on Friday, grounding flights, knocking down some financial companies and news outlets, and disrupting hospitals, small businesses and government offices.

The breadth of the outages highlighted the fragility of a digitized world dependent on just a few providers for key computing services.

The trouble was sparked by an update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and only affected its customers running Microsoft Windows, the world's most popular operating system for personal computers. It was not the result of hacking or a cyberattack, according to CrowdStrike, which apologized and said a fix was on the way.

Businesses and governments worldwide experienced hours-long disruptions — their computer monitors glowing blue with error messages — and scrambled to deal with the fallout. CrowdStrike's CEO said some of their systems will require manual fixes.

The outage of the Microsoft network on Friday affected airline operations in Chennai too. Since the morning operation of more than 10 flights were affected at the Chennai airport.

The flights were delayed, ranging from half an hour to an hour.

Among the airlines, Indigo was the worst-affected airline in Chennai. Indigo Airlines issued boarding passes manually to its passengers.

Exelon Corporation, a major US power company, announced on Friday that a number of its information systems, as well as those of its local electric and natural gas utilities, were impacted by the worldwide technology disruption.

The Chicago-based company, which ranks among the largest electric utilities in the country, stated that it is currently in the process of evaluating the extent of the cyber incident's effects on its operations.

Tesla experienced a partial shutdown of its production lines on Friday morning due to a global IT outage that affected numerous companies worldwide. The outage caused some machinery at the company's Austin, Texas and Sparks, Nevada facilities to display error messages, leading to the early dismissal of certain factory workers during the night shift, as reported by three sources familiar with the situation. However, the issue did not seem to affect all production lines, according to Business Insider.

Worldwide Microsoft outage caused chaos for air passengers, resulting in long delays, canceled flights, and uncertainty. At Sydney Airport, travelers were left in limbo, unsure if their flights would depart. Alexander Ropicano, hoping to return to Brisbane, expressed frustration over the lack of clear information. Tallulah Kennedy faced issues rescheduling her Jetstar flight. Passengers globally experienced similar disruptions, including Anja Mueller, who was stranded in Paris, and Kirk McDowell, whose performance in Bordeaux was jeopardized. Evyn Garson considered driving to a wedding in Florida due to flight uncertainty. Airports like Seoul's Incheon and Budapest's resorted to manual check-ins. The outage also impacted trains, online banking, and even hospitals in the UK and Netherlands.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has acknowledged a widespread Windows outage affecting IT systems globally, stemming from a problematic update released by cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike. The incident has caused significant disruptions across various sectors, including airlines, banks, and emergency services.

"This gave a seizure to the automotive supply chain," social media giant X's CEO Elon Musk reacted to Satya Nadella's statement on global outage.

"Yesterday, CrowdStrike released an update that began impacting IT systems globally. We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online," said Nadella on X.

CrowdStrike's shares plummeted by nearly 10%, while Microsoft's stock remained unchanged.

Airports worldwide saw extensive queues of disgruntled passengers as the system failure disrupted check-in processes. This initially caused a decline in US airline stocks, but they quickly recovered most of their losses. United Airlines even managed to eke out a 0.1% gain. The company acknowledged the likelihood of travel delays and provided a waiver to facilitate itinerary changes for affected passengers.

The White House has confirmed that President Joe Biden is aware of the widespread technical difficulties caused by the CrowdStrike outage which led to blue screen of death on Microsoft Windows on Friday, which affected businesses across various sectors. A representative from the administration stated that "His team is engaged across the interagency to get sector by sector updates throughout the day and is standing by to provide assistance as needed."

Health systems around the world cancelled procedures and resorted to using handwritten records in the wake of a global digital outage that roiled vital resources from air travel to emergency services. General practitioners in the UK’s National Health Service were having trouble accessing scans, blood tests and patient histories after the global IT problems hit a system used for booking patient appointments and checking medical records.

Major health centers in the US like Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Boston-based Mass General Brigham warned the outage was affecting patient care. New Hampshire’s emergency 911 services were restored after a failure earlier today in which operators could see calls coming in but couldn’t answer them.

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) announced that its data and systems were finally back up and running after facing a technical snag amid Microsoft's global outage that affected multiple industries, including airlines, broadcasters, banking, and healthcare.

"We’re currently working through the backlog of data," said LSEG to its clients in a memo seen by news agency Reuters.

American Airlines announced the resumption of its operations on Friday, following a significant global computer systems outage that affected multiple carriers. The airline stated, "Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5:00 am ET (0900 GMT), we have been able to safely re-establish our operation," in a message shared on the social media platform X.

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The outage had caused disruptions to American Airlines' services, but the company managed to resolve the issue and restore its operations. The airline emphasized that the problem originated from a vendor and was not limited to American Airlines alone, as it affected several other carriers as well.

My husband went towards the food court (at Delhi Airport) to get refreshments and nearby we saw an uncle fall down. We rushed towards him and on examination, found that there was no pulse, he had stopped breathing, and was not responding. I gave him CPR and after five minutes, he started responding and his pulse was detectable,” says Dr Priya.

“We have been told that our flight has been delayed till evening but it is not confirmed as it is an issue with Microsoft worldwide. However, flights of Vistara and Air India are flying (on time) but IndiGo is not flying, I don’t know what the issue is. They are giving us accommodation, but they are not sure about how long the delay will last,” says a passenger stranded at Chandigarh Airport due to ‘server outage’.

A widespread global computer outage on Friday led to several Indian airlines facing technical and operational disruptions, which also impacted Swami Vivekananda Airport in Chhattisgarh's Raipur, where nine flights belonging to IndiGo Airlines were cancelled, officials said. These comprise five departures and four arrivals, they said, adding a few flights were also delayed. Officials, however, did not give details of these delayed flights. "Five flights from Raipur to Bengaluru (at 19:55 hrs), Kolkata (20:45 hrs), Hyderabad (20:55 hrs), Mumbai (21:05 hrs) and Delhi (21:20 hrs) and four arrival flights, all belonging to IndiGo, have been cancelled following the IT outage," an airport official here told PTI.

"The outage can be categorised into two types: general glitches and intentional disruptions. General glitches occur because, once the application rolls out, patches automatically develop, leading to glitches. Secondly, if someone intentionally introduces glitches, which we call a cyber attack in layman's terms... As for Microsoft, I am not saying whether it has been compromised by a cyber attack. However, the gap and the time it is taking to fix these patches and glitches suggest that there might be some kind of malicious invadibility or cyber attack," Ojha told news agency PTI.

“The issue is that Microsoft servers are heating up and it is an issue across the world. Six flights (at Vijayawada airport) got delayed due to this issue. Airlines are giving intimation to the passengers,” says Vijayawada Airport Director M Lakshmi Kantha Reddy.

Today, we are facing a lot of difficulties because one of our companions had their flight delayed, and another who had to go to Kolkata had their flight canceled. They had very urgent work in Kolkata tomorrow. So, we are dealing with many problems," says Ankush Sharma, a friend of one of the flight passengers.

Airport travel systems across the world have been impacted due to a tech outage and this may affect your travel plan. If you are flying with us today, we request you to check the status of your flight before heading to the airport," said the airline operator on X

Well over 200 flights have been cancelled by Indian carriers due to the Microsoft Azure outage. IndiGo alone said it has cancelled about 200. Flights have been impacted globally with some US carriers even doing a ground stop all flights for a while.

"Flights are cancelled due to the cascading effect of the worldwide travel system outage, beyond our control. The option to rebook/claim a refund is temporarily unavailable," IndiGo said on X.

Several airlines at Hong Kong International Airport have been impacted by a global IT disruption, according to a statement released by the Airport Authority on Friday. The outage, which has been attributed to Microsoft, has caused widespread technical issues for flight operators across the globe.

The Airport Authority stated, "A Microsoft outage that has disrupted the service of airlines worldwide is affecting some of the airlines at Hong Kong International Airport." The extent of the disruption and the specific airlines affected were not immediately clear.

IndiGo tweets, "Flights are cancelled due to the cascading effect of the worldwide travel system outage, beyond our control. The option to rebook/claim a refund is temporarily unavailable..."

The global Microsoft cloud services outage on Friday caused significant inconvenience for passengers at Bengaluru airport, leading to long lines at the check-in counters of all major airlines as their systems were unable to process check-ins.

Microsoft announced on Friday that the root cause of a worldwide disruption has been resolved. However, the lingering effects of the cybersecurity incidents persist, impacting various Office 365 applications and services.

The company stated, "underlying cause for a global outage has been fixed, but the residual impact of cybersecurity outages are continuing to affect some Office 365 apps and services."

Users may still encounter difficulties with certain features within the Office 365 suite due to the aftermath of the outages. Microsoft is actively working to mitigate these residual issues and restore full functionality to all affected apps and services.

The widespread Microsoft outage is causing significant disruptions across various industries, including aviation, finance, and retail.

Minister of Civil Aviation, Rammohan Naidu says, "I have directed airport authorities and airlines to be compassionate and provide extra seating, water, and food for passengers affected by delays. We understand your concerns and are working tirelessly to ensure your safe and swift travel. Your patience and cooperation are greatly appreciated."

President & CEO CrowdStrike George Kurtz tweets, "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed..."

The organizers of the Paris Olympics have acknowledged that they are facing difficulties due to the global computer systems disruption, just one week before the Games' opening ceremony.
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In a statement, the organizers said, "Paris 2024 is aware of global technical issues affecting Microsoft software. These issues are impacting Paris 2024's IT operations." They assured that their technical teams are fully engaged in mitigating the impact of these problems and have implemented contingency plans to ensure the continuation of operations.
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According to an AFP source within the Paris Olympic Games organizing committee, the issue is specifically affecting the accreditation system, preventing some individuals from collecting their badges before the opening ceremony, which is scheduled to take place next Friday along the River Seine.

American Airlines said that is resumed its operations after global IT outage.

"We are talking about a global outage...the Microsoft cloud computing system has failed. I can assure you that it does not affect the flying airlines or which are operating. It has affected the back-end services which include bookings, check-ins, etc. There is no affect as far as the safety of flights are concerned," BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy told news agency PTI.

A passenger at Chennai airport, Dev Mohanty said, "I had a flight to Goa and it has been cancelled. But, IndiGo did not inform us by text or e-mail. We have not received any form of intimation that the flight has been cancelled. On reaching here, I was told by the CISF officials that the flight had been cancelled...IndiGo has made no arrangements whatsoever...I am not sure what the alternate arrangements are..."

Another passenger Sanket told ANI, "My flight was at 5:10 pm and they did not send us any message that the flight got cancelled. We have been here since noon...I have a connecting flight from Nagpur to the US. They are asking us to come at 6:00 pm. But what happens to my connecting flight? I will be missing my US flight...They are mentioning that this is due to some software issue...They are not letting us talk to the manager. They are not giving us directives..."