CrowdStrike says widespread disruptions not a security incident or cyberattack

Passengers wait to be checked-in at Hong Kong International Airport on Friday, as some airlines resorted to manual check-in

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said Friday that an issue that has caused major disruptions to companies worldwide is not a security incident or cyberattack.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz posted on social media platform X that the company "is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts".

‘Issue found, fix deployed'

After various businesses across the world reported IT outages on Friday, which included seeing the "Windows blue screen of death', CrowdStrike the security firm linked to a software update that caused the outage says that the issue has been isolated and a fix deployed.

George Kurtz, President and CEO of CrowdStrike said the cybersecurity company was working with customers on the issues faced by them while giving a reassurance that the issue was "not a security incident or cyberattack."

A mobile phone displays a text message alert from a British NHS doctor telling a patient his appointment could not be registered, on Friday. Pics/AFP

UK Airports, trains impacted

The UK's airports and trains experienced delays, with the London Stock Exchange and the National Health Service among the other organisations in the country dealing with the fallout of a global IT outage on Friday that has grounded planes and caused chaos around the world.

The outage, believed to be related to an issue at US-headquartered prolific cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike and Microsoft, seems to be affecting Windows PCs globally and has also forced 'Sky News' off the air.

London's biggest airport, Heathrow, said in a statement that its "flights are operational though we are experiencing delays". While the airport said it is implementing contingency plans to minimise impact, Gatwick Airport said passengers ¿may experience some delays" when checking in and passing through security. Luton and Edinburgh Airport, meanwhile, switched to manual systems to support operations.

The London Stock Exchange Group said trading continues to operate as normal while it is working on resolving an issue with its RNS Service, which provides the Regulatory News Service announcements.

Outage ‘affecting' Olympics IT ops

Paris Olympics organisers said on Friday they were experiencing problems linked with a major worldwide computer systems outage, a week before the Games' opening ceremony takes place. "Paris 2024 is aware of global technical issues affecting Microsoft software. These issues are impacting Paris 2024's IT operations," organisers said. "Paris 2024's technical teams have been fully mobilised to mitigate the impacts of these issues and we have activated contingency plans in order to continue operations."

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