Global services slowly recovering after bug causes IT chaos

Businesses and services around the world are slowly recovering after a massive IT outage affected computer systems for hours on Thursday and Friday.

Businesses, banks, hospitals and airlines were among the worst-hit after cyber-security firm Crowdstrike issued a faulty software update which affected Microsoft Windows.

Crowdstrike’s CEO apologised for the disruption and said a fix had been issued, but admitted it could be “some time” before all systems were back up and running.

While some airline services are beginning to return to normal after thousands of flights were cancelled, operators expect some delays and cancellations to persist through the weekend.

Many businesses are now dealing with backlogs and missed orders that could take days to resolve.

Health services in Britain, Israel and Germany also suffered problems, with some operations cancelled.

The global chaos has sparked concern over the vulnerability of the world’s interconnected technologies, and the extent to which a single software glitch could have such widespread impact.

The issue began at 19:00 GMT on Thursday, affecting Windows users running cybersecurity software CrowdStrike Falcon, according to Microsoft, though the full extent of the problem only became clear by Friday morning.

But by Friday evening, the problems were easing in many parts of the globe, with many airports saying that while there were still issues with check-in and payment systems, most flights were now running. Hong Kong International Airport has resumed normal operations, according to Chinese state media.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan Chase, the biggest bank in the US, said it is working to restore service to ATM machines.

The website Downdetector, which detects sites which may be having tech issues, showed fewer sites in the UK which were experiencing problems by the end of the day.

Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz said on X that a defect was found “in a single content update for Windows hosts”.

“We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this, including our company,” he told the NBC network.

“Many of the customers are rebooting the system and it’s coming up and it’ll be operational.

“It could be some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover, but it is our mission… to make sure every customer is fully recovered.” (Foreign Agencies)

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