Microsoft IT outage live: Travellers still stranded as experts warn problem is likely to happen again (2024)

CrowdStrike said a significant number of the over 8.5 million devices affected from Friday’s botched software update are back online.

The outage led to over 1,500 cancelled flights in the US and dozens more across the UK for the third day in a row, leaving passengers stranded across airports.

Hospitals, GPs, pharmacies, banks, supermarkets and millions of businesses have also been impacted.

CrowdStrike said the outage was caused by a defect in an update to its “Falcon” cybersecurity defence software for Windows hosts.

Over the weekend, Microsoft released a recovery tool to help repair Windows machines hit by the glitch that affected over 8.5 million devices.

However, experts warned that it could take weeks for global tech infrastructure to fully recover.

“Even if we could guarantee it could be fully fixed on Monday GPs would still need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend, and NHSE should make clear to patients that normal service cannot be resumed immediately,” David Wrigley, deputy chair of GPC England at the BMA, said.

Key Points

• Aviation chaos continues with dozens more cancellations on UK-Europe flights

• Microsoft releases recovery tool to help repair Windows machines hit by CrowdStrike issue

• CrowdStrike gives update on ‘automatic fix’, reveals Australian home affairs minister

• As many as 8.5 million Windows devices affected by IT glitch

• Australia warns of malicious websites after cyber outage

• National Lottery app and website goes down across UK amid global IT outage

IT outage ‘likely’ to occur again unless government and industry work together

Saturday 20 July 2024 18:30 , Tara Cobham

A global IT outage is “likely” to occur again unless governments and industry work together to “design out” technological flaws, a leading cyber expert has said.

Professor Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said “the worst” of the global IT outage was over but countries would “have to learn to cope” with future flaws.

The founding chief executive of the NCSC told Sky News: “The worst of this is over because the nature of the crisis was such that it went very badly wrong, very quickly. It was spotted quite quickly and, essentially, it was turned off.”

Sam Hall reports:

IT outage ‘likely’ to occur again unless government and industry work together

More than 100,000 passengers hit by weekend flight cancellations

10:00 , Andrew Griffin

Some 100,000 travellers were affected by the problems over the weekend, Simon Calder reports. Many of those are still stuck trying to reach their destinations, he says.

You can read the full story here.

Delta Air Lines struggles with thousands of cancellations after tech outage

08:00 , Vishwam Sankaran

Delta Air Lines faced further operational issues on Sunday with over a thousand flights cancelled for the third straight day beyond the 3,500 the airlines had previously scrapped.

A Microsoft outage on Friday left thousands of Delta travellers stranded across the US this weekend as the global IT outage affected the airline company’s crew tracking system.

“In particular one of our crew tracking-related tools was affected and unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system shutdown,” Delta chief Ed Bastian told customers.

Delta has not yet offered any timetable for resuming normal operations with over 300 flights cancelled for Monday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

As many as 8.5 million computers running Windows affected by faulty update

07:00 , Tara Cobham

As 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.”

David Koenig and Isabella O'Malley report:

8.5 million computers running Windows affected by faulty update from CrowdStrike

US border crossings reportedly delayed due to global tech outage

06:30 , Vishwam Sankaran

System failure caused by the global IT outage reportedly led to a massive grid-lock at the US-Mexico border with even approved Border Protection vehicles stranded for about 90 minutes.

Officials turned to workarounds like colour-coded cards to streamline processes, San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

The outage also led to employees working with US government agencies missing work at the US border.

“Due to the global Windows outage, some of our staff are experiencing major delays getting across the border to come to work. This may result in missed or delayed service,” the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System posted on X.

Recap: Watch timelapse showing how global Microsoft IT outage grounded flights across US

06:00 , Tara Cobham

CrowdStrike says significant number' of impacted devices back online

05:40 , Vishwam Sankaran

CrowdStrike said a significant number of the over 8.5 million devices affected by last week’s botched software update are back online, Reuters reported.

Over the weekend, Microsoft deployed hundreds of its engineers to help its customers restore services after the global IT outage caused by its cyber security partner CrowdStrike.

Microsoft said over 8.5 million devices were affected by the outage, which led to airlines, banks, call centers, transportation and healthcare systems struggling worldwide.

CrowdStrike said the outage was caused by a defect in an update to its “Falcon” cybersecurity defence software for Windows hosts.

In pictures: Passengers waiting at airports after IT outages caused long queues across world

05:00 , Tara Cobham

Over 1,500 US flights cancelled for third straight day

04:31 , Vishwam Sankaran

More than 1,500 flights were cancelled for the third straight day in the US yesterday amid a global tech outage due to CrowdStrike’s botched software update.

Thousands of passengers were left stranded at airports across the US as nearly 1,600 flights travelling within or out of the US were cancelled, and about 8,500 delayed on Sunday, data from flight tracking website FlightAware.com suggests.

Delta Air Lines chief Ed Bastian said the company is still working to recover its system and restore operations.

“Canceling a flight is always a last resort, and something we don’t take lightly,” Mr Bastian said.

CEO of Crowdstrike confirms issue ‘not a security or cyber incident’

04:00 , Tara Cobham

The CEO of Crowdstrike, the company at the centre of the global IT outage, confirmed that the issue affecting millions of Windows devices “was not a security or cyber incident”.

Posting on the social media platform X on Friday afternoon, George Kurtz said: “Our customers remain fully protected.”

GPs need time to recover from global IT outage, warns BMA

03:00 , Tara Cobham

Normal GP service “cannot be resumed immediately” after Friday’s global IT outage caused a “considerable backlog”, ​the British Medical Association has warned.

The trade union for doctors said GPs would “need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend”, adding that NHS England should “make clear to patients” this was the case.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said its GP committee would continue to talk to NHS England and patient record system supplier EMIS to secure a “better system of IT backup” to ensure the “disaster” was not repeated.

Sam Hall reports:

GPs need time to recover from global IT outage, warns BMA

Recap: Watch as Sky News malfunctions amid Microsoft outage affecting millions

02:00 , Tara Cobham

What would really happen if we were hit by a complete tech wipeout?

01:00 , Tara Cobham

Power outages and internet disruptions are on the minds of many at the moment as a worldwide Windows glitch has taken much of the world’s infrastructure offline. Flights are grounded and TV channels including Sky News have been taken off air. Everything from banks and payment companies to airlines and train companies said they would see delays and technical issues caused by a flawed software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

It is something the former deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, warned of when he made the case for us to all think about how prepared we are for prolonged disruption during a cyberattack. While, George Kurtz, the founder and chief executive of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, has made it clear there was no possibility that this power outage was a cyber-attack it has certainly focussed our minds.

It is also a reminder of the smash Netflix hit Leave the World Behind which pondered the stark, post-apocalyptic depiction of the immediate aftermath of an attack. In the movie, the first time anyone notices that something is wrong is when they discover their mobile phone coverage is out, and their wifi disappears, but it takes a push notification on their TV screens for the characters to learn that an attack has been launched.

Chris Stokel-Walker reports:

What would really happen if we were hit by a complete tech wipeout?

The IT outage proves we can’t simply turn the internet off and on again

Monday 22 July 2024 00:00 , Tara Cobham

It’s our powerlessness that is so shocking. This morning, millions of people were left staring at a blue computer screen bearing a glum emoji and the message: “Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart. We’re just collecting some error info, and then we’ll restart for you.”

This “blue screen of death” was not selective. Supermarkets, banks, airlines, hospitals – these and many more businesses, organisations and individuals across the globe, rich and poor, were caught up in the chaos. For hours, the world effectively more or less halted as Microsoft customers using Windows 10 suffered an IT outage.

Apparently it was caused by a glitch in an update issued by CrowdStrike – ironically, a cybersecurity firm. It took a while, but they reported that if customers deleted the update and restarted their computer, normality could quickly be restored.

Chris Blackhurst writes:

The IT outage proves we can’t simply turn the internet off and on again

Watch: Huge airport queues seen on Saturday as global IT outage causes chaos at Heathrow

Sunday 21 July 2024 23:00 , Tara Cobham

BMA warns normal GP service ‘cannot be resumed immediately'

Sunday 21 July 2024 22:00 , Tara Cobham

The British Medical Association has warned that normal GP service “cannot be resumed immediately” after the global IT outage caused a “considerable backlog”.

Dr David Wrigley, deputy chairman of GPC England, the representative body for GPs at the BMA, said: “Friday was one the toughest single days in recent times for GPs across England. Without a clinical IT system many were forced to return to pen and paper to be able to serve their patients.

“While GPs and their teams worked hard to look after as many as they could, without access to the information they needed much of the work has had to be shifted into the coming week.

“GPs have been pulling out all the stops this weekend to deal with the effects of Friday’s catastrophic loss of service and, as their IT systems come back online, we thank them and their staff for their hard work under exceptionally trying circ*mstances.

“We also thank patients for bearing with general practice in this unprecedented situation.

“The temporary loss of the EMIS patient record system has meant a considerable backlog.

“Even if we could guarantee it could be fully fixed on Monday, GPs would still need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend, and NHSE (National Health Service England) should make clear to patients that normal service cannot be resumed immediately.

“The BMA’s GP committee will continue our dialogue with both EMIS and NHSE, both to make sure that the coming week can be used to recover as quickly as possible and to urgently work on securing a better system of IT backup so that this disaster is not repeated in future.”

Who is CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz?

Sunday 21 July 2024 21:00 , Tara Cobham

On Friday, tech outages swept the world from hospitals and airlines, to banks and courts. Flights were grounded, payments delayed and hospitals across the world reported problems.

A worldwide glitch, which affected major companies including Microsoft, took much of the world’s infrastructure offline. The problems stemmed from a global software update sent out by cybersecurity specialists, CrowdStrike.

Crowdstrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, later issued a statement reassuring customers that the outage was not “a security incident or cyber attack.”

Mike Bedigan reports:

Who is CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz?

When will the Microsoft issue be fixed?

Sunday 21 July 2024 20:00 , Tara Cobham

Experts have warned it could take weeks for systems to fully recover from a global outage which has seen disruption including flight delays and cancellations.

A flawed update rolled out by CrowdStrike, one of the world’s largest cybersecurity providers, knocked many offline around the world on Friday, causing flight and train cancellations and crippling some healthcare systems.

Here is a closer look at what we know about the incident:

Crowdstrike global outage: When will the Microsoft issue be fixed?

Watch: Simon Calder explains your rights if flight is cancelled by global IT outage

Sunday 21 July 2024 19:00 , Tara Cobham

Air passenger compensation: What are your rights when a flight goes wrong?

Sunday 21 July 2024 18:00 , Tara Cobham

Your flight is cancelled, overbooked or delayed: what, if anything, does the airline owe you?

The rules are tangled and depend on where your flight begins and the airline involved. Sometimes you may be entitled to a hotel room, all meals and hundreds of pounds in cash; in other circ*mstances you may just have to put a dismal aviation episode down to expensive experience, and see if your travel insurer can help.

To complicate matters further, some airlines do not have a great record about telling passengers about their rights or delivering the stipulated care and cash.

Travel Correspondent Simon Calder’s guide should make you aware of your entitlements, even if the airline fails to do so:

What are your rights when a flight goes wrong?

Simon Calder asks: “Could summer city breaks simply be too risky?”

Sunday 21 July 2024 17:00 , Tara Cobham

In his weekly column for The Independent, travel correspondent Simon Calder praises “summer in the city” as “one of the true joys of travel”.

He writes: “For outbound British travellers, summer is a marvellous opportunity to trespass gleefully in someone else’s city.

“Whether you are in Manchester, Milan or Montreal, July and August are special times. These are densely populated, hard-working business cities. But come summer, many of the locals leave town and create a vacuum that tourists can fill with ease.

“Life for visitors, as well as residents who have stayed behind, spills out into the streets and squares, with picnics the common denominator. For all the passing travellers, the city feels spacious.

“Yet perhaps the summer city break has had its day. This year aviation chaos has been a regular weekend feature."

On Sunday easyJet has grounded flights to Milan, Rome and Hamburg, while British Airways has axed departures to Barcelona and Geneva.

“Many of us try to squeeze a short break between Friday and Sunday. Who wants to have their travel dream taken away as you queue at the gate at Heathrow or Gatwick, or being forced to find workarounds if the planned flight home vanishes?

“A summer break should be the epitome of anticipation: deliciously awaiting the chance to revel in urban bliss. But an unholy trinity of air-traffic control staff shortage, summer storms and IT failures potentially stand between you and metropolitan indulgence.

“Recent events undermine confidence; apprehension is not an emotion that sits easily with travel.”

More than 600 UK flights cancelled since Friday – affecting 100,000 passengers

Sunday 21 July 2024 16:00 , Travel Correspondent Simon Calder

The scale of the cancellations afflicting airline passengers to, from and within the UK as a result of the CloudStrike IT failure is becoming clearer, with final figures for Friday and Saturday now available.

The aviation analytics firm, Cirium, says 408 arrivals and departures at UK airport were cancelled on Friday 19 July. This was on a day that was expected to be the busiest for UK aviation since 2019 – but the cancellations meant it fell well short.

While many airlines and airports said they hoped to be back to normal on Saturday, a further 119 flights were cancelled.

As of 10.30am on Sunday, Cirium calculate a further 88 flights to, from or within the UK had been cancelled, taking the total over the peak weekend of the year so far to over 600 grounded flights. It is likely that at least 100,000 passengers have had their flight axed.

Worldwide, almost 12,000 flights have been cancelled since Friday.

Scammers target frustrated travellers after mass cancellations

Sunday 21 July 2024 15:32 , Travel Correspondent Simon Calder

Fraudsters are using “imposter” social media sites to target travellers whose flights are among the hundreds to have been cancelled since Friday.

Many passengers are taking to social media to complain. Scammers, though to be based in East Africa, have set up dozens of “imposter accounts” on X/Twitter that pretend to be official airline and holiday company representatives.

They respond to the frustrated traveller and ask for a phone number so they can arrange compensation.

Anyone who provides one will then be called on WhatsApp and persuaded to download a legitimate remittance app and link it to their bank account. The scammer then assures the customer they will be sent money, while in fact they are tricked into sending money to an unknown recipient.

easyJet cancellations double at Gatwick

Sunday 21 July 2024 15:11 , Travel Correspondent Simon Calder

This afternoon the number of easyJet cancellations to/from Gatwick has doubled, from 24 to 48. New fallers include two Amsterdam flights, Geneva, Toulouse, Marseille and Naples.

Previously announced: grounded flights to/from Palma, Faro and Pisa.

Aer Lingus has axed 2 Heathrow-Dublin round-trips.

When a flight is cancelled, the airline must provide the passenger with a replacement as soon as possible – including on a rival airline if need be. It must also book a hotel room and provide meals if necessary.

But many passengers have told The Independent that their airline has said only its own flights can be used.

Tui passengers learn of cancellations at the departure gate

Sunday 21 July 2024 15:00 , Tara Cobham

Europe’s biggest travel firm, Tui, is cancelling more peak-season package holidays as it struggles to recover from the CrowdStrike chaos.

The firm’s crew rostering system was impacted by Friday’s IT outage. Tui grounded 64 holiday flights to and from the UK on Friday, with further delays and cancellations on Saturday and Sunday.

The company is taking the highly unusual step of cancelling entire package holidays to manage down the scale of its problems – which are particularly acute at Manchester airport.

Travel Correspondent Simon Calder reports:

Tui cancels flights and holidays as passengers wait at departure gates

Microsoft releases recovery tool to help repair Windows machines hit by CrowdStrike issue

Sunday 21 July 2024 14:40 , Tara Cobham

Microsoft has released a recovery tool to help repair Windows machines hit by the glitch after the company disclosed that 8.5 million devices were affected.

The tool is designed to aid in quickly recovering impacted machines via a bootable USB drive.

Passenger receives handwritten boarding pass during Microsoft outage

Sunday 21 July 2024 14:00 , Tara Cobham

A flight passenger has shown off one effect of the current Microsoft computer outage.

On Friday, July 19, it was reported that cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike issued a faulty software update on Microsoft’s Windows operating system, crashing and infecting computers with the “blue screen of death” that left users unable to restart.

Because companies have computer systems run via Microsoft, this has resulted in flights being canceled, television stations being taken offline, and some banks being unable to make payments.

Brittany Miller reports:

Passenger receives handwritten boarding pass during Microsoft outage

GPs will have backlog of patients to manage after ‘catastrophic’ IT outage

Sunday 21 July 2024 13:44 , Rebecca Thomas

GPs will have to manage a considerable backlog of patients when their IT systems come back online, the British Medical Association has warned.

The BMA said on Sunday the NHS should be clear with patients that GP services will not be able to resume immediately even if their IT systems are back on by Monday.

Dr David Wrigley, deputy chair of the General Practice Committee England for the BMA, said: “Friday was one the toughest single days in recent times for GPs across England.

“GPs have been pulling out all the stops this weekend to deal with the effects of Friday’s catastrophic loss of service.

“The temporary loss of the patient record system has meant a considerable backlog. Even if we could guarantee it could be fully fixed on Monday GPs would still need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend, and NHSE should make clear to patients that normal service cannot be resumed immediately.”

Watch: Doctor shares advice to patients waiting for prescriptions amid global IT outage

Sunday 21 July 2024 13:00 , Tara Cobham

What caused the Microsoft IT outage that broke flights, banks and trains across the world?

Sunday 21 July 2024 12:00 , Tara Cobham

A widespread computer outage left flights grounded, TV stations offline and much of the world’s infrastructure not working on Friday.

Cyber security experts said the outage was “unprecedented” in its reach, affecting many of the world’s biggest companies.

The cause of the problems was initially mysterious: Windows computers showed a blue screen of death, or BSOD, as if they had just spontaneously stopped working.

Andrew Griffin reports:

What caused the IT outage that broke flights, banks and trains across the world

Aviation chaos continues with dozens more cancellations on UK-Europe flights

Sunday 21 July 2024 11:26 , Travel correspondent Simon Calder

Airline passengers are enduring a third day of chaos, with dozens more holiday flights cancelled.

After hundreds of flights were grounded by the IT outage on Friday, knock-on delays have continued through the weekend, with adverse weather in parts of Europe and air-traffic control delays exacerbating the problems.

At London Gatwick, easyJet has so far cancelled 24 flights, including to holiday departures to Faro, Naples and Palma de Mallorca.

Britain's biggest budget airline has also grounded a Manchester-Bordeaux trip, with other cancellations from Manchester on Eurowings to Dusseldorf and Hamburg.

London Heathrow passengers are also hard hit, with British Airways cancelling a dozen flights to and from UK and Continental European destinations – as well as a London City-Faro round trip.

Aer Lingus has grounded a flight between Shannon in the west of Ireland and Heathrow, with Eurowings cancelling a flight from Cologne.

Ryanair has made one round-trip cancellation from its main base, London Stansted: to Milan Bergamo.

What is Crowdstrike? The $80bn company linked to largest IT outage in history

Sunday 21 July 2024 11:00 , Tara Cobham

Before this week, CrowdStrike was known for finding the cause of problems, rather than causing them. The company – headquartered in Austin, Texas, but with a reach across the world – was most famous for having investigated large-scale hacks, such as those on Sony Pictures and breaches at the Democratic National Committee that it blamed on Russian spies.

It has built a huge business out of that and other work. It was worth $80bn (£62bn) when trading on the Nasdaq closed on Thursday – though its share price has since fallen by 20 per cent. It reported revenues of $3bn in the last year.

CrowdStrike was founded in 2011 – by a team that included George Kurtz, the CEO that has been representing the company as it recovers from the problems – and immediately caught the interest of investors. The year after, it launched with a $26m investment round, and it has gathered more investment since.

Our Technology editor Andrew Griffin reports:

What is Crowdstrike? The $80bn company linked to ‘largest IT outage in history’

NHS England warns of ‘continued disruption’ to GP services into next week

Sunday 21 July 2024 10:00 , Rebecca Thomas

NHS England has warned of “continued disruption” to GP services into next week from the global IT outage.

Across England, GP surgeries reported being unable to book appointments or access patient records on Friday as their EMIS appointment and patient record system went down.

NHS England said on Saturday afternoon that its systems were “coming back online in most areas” but “still running slightly slower than usual”.

An NHS spokesperson said: “As practices recover from the loss of IT systems on Friday, there may be some continued disruption, particularly to GP services, in some areas into next week as practices work to rebook appointments.

“The advice for Monday remains that patients should attend appointments as normal unless told otherwise.”

Dr Fari Ahmad said the IT outage meant “everything went down” in her surgery and the disruption would cause “a lot more issues later on in the week”.

The GP told BBC Breakfast: “We had people who were supposed to come in for results, and we couldn’t see them. We said ‘Sorry, we can’t help you’. We were just trying to deal with the emergencies on the day that really couldn’t wait. We couldn’t do our routine stuff, so the implications for us is a lot of that’s been bumped up.”

Australia warns of malicious websites after cyber outage

Sunday 21 July 2024 09:12 , Tara Cobham

Australia's cyber intelligence agency has warned “malicious websites and unofficial code” are being released online claiming to aid recovery from Friday's global digital outage.

Australia was one of many countries affected by the outage, which hit media, retailers, banks and airlines, causing havoc worldwide after a botched software update from CrowdStrike.

On Saturday, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) - the country's cyber intelligence agency - said "a number of malicious websites and unofficial code are being released claiming to help entities recover from the widespread outages caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident".

On its website, the agency said its cyber security centre "strongly encourages all consumers to source their technical information and updates from official CrowdStrike sources only".

Cyber Security Minister Clare O'Neil said on social media platform X on Saturday that Australians should "be on the lookout for possible scams and phishing attempts".

Friday's outage hit Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the country's largest bank, which said some customers were unable to make PayID payments, an issue later resolved. National airline Qantas and Sydney airport said planes were delayed but still flying.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said late on Friday that there had been no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or emergency phone systems.

CrowdStrike gives update on ‘automatic fix’, reveals Australian home affairs minister

Sunday 21 July 2024 08:45 , Tara Cobham

The Australian home affairs minister has revealed Crowdstrike is “now close to rolling out an automatic fix to the issue with their update”.

Clare O’Neil said the company at the centre of the world’s biggest-ever IT outage has told the federal government that it is not far off the fix that would enable systems to return online.

Writing on the social media platform X on Sunday, she said: “CrowdStrike informed the meeting this morning that they are now close to rolling out an automatic fix to the issue with their update, as is Microsoft. This should increase the speed at which systems across the economy are back online.”

NHS warns of continued disruption to GP services next week from global IT outage

Sunday 21 July 2024 07:00 , Alexander Butler

NHS warns of continued disruption to GP services next week from global IT outage

Third of England’s pharmacy drug supplies hit by global IT outage, officials say

Sunday 21 July 2024 05:00 , Alexander Butler

A global IT outage hit one-third of drug deliveries to pharmacies in England as chaos impacted thousands of GP practices and hospitals across the country declared critical incidents.

GPs, pharmacies and NHS 111 services across the country suffered major disruption on Friday after an update from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company crashed Microsoft Windows systems.

The IT bug hit EMIS which is used by around 60 per cent of GP practices - 3,700- to access patient records, book appointments and issue prescriptions.

Third of England’s pharmacy drug supplies hit by global IT outage, officials say

Mass IT outage shows how exposed services are, says expert

Sunday 21 July 2024 04:00 , Alexander Butler

A widespread IT outage affecting sectors from the NHS to transport and banking to media has been described as an unprecedented sign of how exposed services are with a potential overreliance on certain operating systems.

The major disruption could prompt a rethink on whether the most resilient operating systems are being used and whether it is “lazy” to stick with what we know, according to cybersecurity expert Dr Harjinder Lallie.

The associate professor at the University of Warwick described the situation as an IT “catastrophe”.

Mass IT outage shows how exposed services are, says expert

IT outage impacts two-thirds of GP practices in Northern Ireland

Sunday 21 July 2024 03:00 , Alexander Butler

IT outage impacts two-thirds of GP practices in Northern Ireland

Global IT outage: What happened and when will it be fixed?

Sunday 21 July 2024 02:00 , Alexander Butler

Global IT outage: What happened and when will it be fixed?

Millions could face delay in getting paid as global IT outage hits payroll software

Sunday 21 July 2024 01:00 , Alexander Butler

Workers globally may not be paid on time due to a major IT outage causing chaos around the world, payroll businesses have warned.

The IT outage has resulted in queues and delays at airports, disruption to GP services and payment failures in some shops.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike is “actively working” to fix a “defect” in an update for Microsoft Windows users which sparked the outage.

Millions could face delay in getting paid as global IT outage hits payroll software

Passenger receives handwritten boarding pass during Microsoft outage

Saturday 20 July 2024 22:30 , Alexander Butler

Passenger receives handwritten boarding pass during Microsoft outage

Bombay Bicycle Club reschedule festival date they missed due to global IT outage

Saturday 20 July 2024 21:30 , Alexander Butler

Indie rock band Bombay Bicycle Club have announced the rescheduled date of a music festival performance they missed due to the global IT outage.

The British group, comprised of Jack Steadman, Jamie MacColl, Suren de Saram and Ed Nash, were due to play Poolbar Festival in the Austrian town of Feldkirch on Friday but missed it due to a cancelled flight.

In a post to Instagram on Friday evening they said: “Unfortunately our flights to get to tonight’s Poolbar Festival show were cancelled because of the IT outage.

Bombay Bicycle Club reschedule festival date they missed due to global IT outage

Who is CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz?

Saturday 20 July 2024 20:30 , Alexander Butler

Who is CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz?

NHS warns of ‘continued disruption’ into next week

Saturday 20 July 2024 19:30

NHS England has warned of “continued disruption” to GP services into next week from the global IT outage.

A flawed update rolled out by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike knocked many offline around the world on Friday, causing flight and train cancellations and crippling some healthcare systems.

A fix was deployed for a bug in the update, which affected Microsoft Windows PCs, on Friday, as CrowdStrike’s chief executive said it would take “some time” for systems to be fully restored.

Across England, GP surgeries reported being unable to book appointments or access patient records on Friday as their EMIS appointment and patient record system went down.

An NHS spokesperson said: “As practices recover from the loss of IT systems on Friday, there may be some continued disruption, particularly to GP services, in some areas into next week as practices work to rebook appointments.

“The advice for Monday remains that patients should attend appointments as normal unless told otherwise.”

Doctor issues advice to patients waiting for prescriptions amid global IT outage

Saturday 20 July 2024 18:00 , Tara Cobham

Doctor issues advice to patients waiting for prescriptions amid global IT outage

Up to 8.5million Windows devices affected by IT glitch

Saturday 20 July 2024 17:59 , Alexander Butler

The global IT outage caused by CrowdStrike’s update affected 8.5 million Windows devices, Microsoft has said.

Estimating the impact of the update, Microsoft said it had affected less than 1 per cent of Windows machines.

“While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services,” the firm said in a statement.

“This incident demonstrates the interconnected nature of our broad ecosystem - global cloud providers, software platforms, security vendors and other software vendors, and customers.

“It’s also a reminder of how important it is for all of us across the tech ecosystem to prioritise operating with safe deployment and disaster.”

What is Crowdstrike? The $80bn company linked to largest IT outage in history

Saturday 20 July 2024 17:30 , Tara Cobham

Before this week, CrowdStrike was known for finding the cause of problems, rather than causing them. The company – headquartered in Austin, Texas, but with a reach across the world – was most famous for having investigated large-scale hacks, such as those on Sony Pictures and breaches at the Democratic National Committee that it blamed on Russian spies.

It has built a huge business out of that and other work. It was worth $80bn (£62bn) when trading on the Nasdaq closed on Thursday – though its share price has since fallen by 20 per cent. It reported revenues of $3bn in the last year.

CrowdStrike was founded in 2011 – by a team that included George Kurtz, the CEO that has been representing the company as it recovers from the problems – and immediately caught the interest of investors. The year after, it launched with a $26m investment round, and it has gathered more investment since.

Technology editor Andrew Griffin reports:

What is Crowdstrike? The $80bn company linked to ‘largest IT outage in history’

Air passengers facing further disruption following world IT outage

Saturday 20 July 2024 17:00 , Tara Cobham

Passengers continue to face disruption at airports on Saturday as airlines reel from the impact of the global IT outage.

Nearly 7,000 flights were cancelled across the globe on Friday, including 408 to and from the UK.

As of 10am on Saturday, the UK had seen 23 departing and 25 inbound flights cancelled, according to figures from aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Luke O’Reilly reports:

Air passengers facing further disruption following world IT outage

Simon Calder explains your rights if flight is cancelled by global IT outage

Saturday 20 July 2024 16:30 , Tara Cobham

Simon Calder explains your rights if flight is cancelled by global IT outage

NHS England reports systems ‘coming back online’ but ‘still running slow’

Saturday 20 July 2024 16:07 , Tara Cobham

NHS England has reported that its systems are “coming back online in most areas” but “still running slightly slower than usual” and warned of “continued disruption” to GP services into next week.

An NHS spokesperson said: “The majority of systems including the EMIS appointment and patient record system, are now coming back online in most areas, however they are still running slightly slower than usual.

“As practices recover from the loss of IT systems on Friday, there may be some continued disruption, particularly to GP services, in some areas into next week as practices work to rebook appointments.

“The advice for Monday remains that patients should attend appointments as normal unless told otherwise.

“You can contact your GP in the usual way, otherwise please use your local pharmacy, NHS 111 online or call 111 for urgent health advice as normal.

“The 999 service has remained working over this period and so people should use this as they usually would in emergency situations.”

GPs and pharmacies say global IT outage disruption to continue over weekend

Saturday 20 July 2024 16:00 , Tara Cobham

GPs and pharmacies have said that disruption from the global IT outage will continue over the weekend, amid warnings of travel delays after flight cancellations.

A flawed update rolled out by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike knocked many offline around the world on Friday, causing flight and train cancellations and crippling some healthcare systems.

A fix was deployed for a bug in the update, which affected Microsoft Windows PCs, on Friday, as CrowdStrike’s chief executive said it would take “some time” for systems to be fully restored.

Sam Hall reports:

GPs and pharmacies say global IT outage disruption to continue over weekend

Stranded airline passengers told to ‘come on down’ to Dover port amid IT outage

Saturday 20 July 2024 15:30 , Tara Cobham

Holidaymakers left stranded by cancelled flights on Friday have been encouraged to take a ferry from Dover as thousands of families start to embark on summer holidays.

Flight delays and cancellations are among the disruption expected to continue into the weekend after Friday’s global IT outage, with experts warning it could take weeks for systems to fully recover.

It comes as thousands of families start to embark on summer holidays amid the end of the academic year for many schools.

William Warnes reports:

Stranded airline passengers told to ‘come on down’ to Dover port amid IT outage

Bombay Bicycle Club reschedule festival date they missed due to global IT outage

Saturday 20 July 2024 15:00 , Tara Cobham

Indie rock band Bombay Bicycle Club have announced the rescheduled date of a music festival performance they missed due to the global IT outage.

The British group, comprised of Jack Steadman, Jamie MacColl, Suren de Saram and Ed Nash, were due to play Poolbar Festival in the Austrian town of Feldkirch on Friday but missed it due to a cancelled flight.

In a post to Instagram on Friday evening they said: “Unfortunately our flights to get to tonight’s Poolbar Festival show were cancelled because of the IT outage.

Hannah Roberts reports:

Bombay Bicycle Club reschedule festival date they missed due to global IT outage