Global internet outage - Disruption to airlines, banks, media and other businesses worldwide - July 19, 2024

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Victorians urged to call 000 in case of fire due to outages impacting automatic alarm calling
Victorian fire services are aware that some residential and business buildings that have monitored fire alarms may not automatically call the fire brigade due to current computing outages.

Victorians have been asked to call 000 if their building fire alarm is activated, or if they see flames or smoke, while the issue is being investigated by alarm companies.
 
Meanwhile, in South Africa:

"In South Africa, at least two major banks said they experienced service disruptions as customers complained they weren’t able to make payments using their bank cards at grocery stores and gas stations or use ATMs.

Both banks said they were able to restore services hours later."

 
Because different hospitals, shops, banks, local authorities, transport companies, etc. use different software systems, there's really no way of knowing exactly what will or won't be affected by this.

If they use Crowdstrike security software on a Windows server, they could be affected. If they don't, they shouldn't be.
 
CrowdStrike founder and CEO @George_Kurtz
speaks on TODAY about the major computer outages worldwide that started earlier today: “We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this.”


So, the takeaways are:
* Not cyber attack
* Bug in the update caused the problem
* Fix by re-booting (?)
* How does a bug cause global disruption, is there no redundancy or back-up built in? Answer: cough, cough, let me drink some water.

jmo
 
I picked up my prescription at 9 this morning, have just returned from the weekly shop in Aldi no issues.UK here.
Also UK here. I had a call from the hospital today to book an appointment on their system at the exact same time the global updates were saying the NHS was unable to book appointments so clearly it isn’t all of the NHS booking system that’s affected (although I’d expect them to be on the same platform?)
 

What has been affected by the outage?​

Over 1,000 flights had been cancelled in the U.S. by early Friday morning and more than 1,700 others were delayed. Globally, more than 15,000 flights were delayed early Friday, and that number was expected to rise.

In Europe, Lufthansa, KLM and SAS Airlines reported disruptions. Switzerland's largest airport, in Zurich, said planes were not being allowed to land, according to CBS News partner network BBC News.

In India, at the country's primary airport in Delhi, everything was being done manually. No electric check-in terminals were functioning and gate information was being updated by hand on a white board, the BBC reported.

Hospitals in Germany said they were cancelling elective surgeries Friday and doctors in the U.K. said they were having issues accessing their online booking system. Pharmacists in the U.K. said there were disruptions with medicine deliveries and accessing prescriptions.

Much more in article: Microsoft outages caused by CrowdStrike software glitch paralyze airlines, other businesses. Here's what to know.
 
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Also UK here. I had a call from the hospital today to book an appointment on their system at the exact same time the global updates were saying the NHS was unable to book appointments so clearly it isn’t all of the NHS booking system that’s affected (although I’d expect them to be on the same platform?)

My mum had an NHS telephone appointment at midday today, and that was also received without any issues. The UK seems to be less affected than some countries; I think Crowdstrike is less widely used here.
 

What has been affected by the Microsoft outages?​

Over 1,000 flights had been cancelled in the U.S. by early Friday morning and more than 1,700 others were delayed. Globally, more than 15,000 flights were delayed early Friday, and that number was expected to rise.

In Europe, Lufthansa, KLM and SAS Airlines reported disruptions. Switzerland's largest airport, in Zurich, said planes were not being allowed to land, according to CBS News partner network BBC News.

In India, at the country's primary airport in Delhi, everything was being done manually. No electric check-in terminals were functioning and gate information was being updated by hand on a white board, the BBC reported.

Hospitals in Germany said they were cancelling elective surgeries Friday and doctors in the U.K. said they were having issues accessing their online booking system. Pharmacists in the U.K. said there were disruptions with medicine deliveries and accessing prescriptions.

Much more in article: Microsoft outages caused by CrowdStrike software glitch paralyze airlines, other businesses. Here's what to know.

This is no reflection on you for posting this (Thank you!) but I'm quite frustrated by the articles calling this a Microsoft/Windows problem.

I have no love for Microsoft, but this is clearly Crowdstrike's fault. They've admitted it is.
 
It's always been amusing to me how people don't see the connection between the time and effort put in to prevent Y2K and the lack of problems on that day. (Not you specifically SouthAussie, just making a general observation.)

An ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure, but humans don't really think that way.

We'll see it here too. I'm sure all this was foreseeable. But only after billions in damages (and perhaps even some lives lost with all the hospital systems down) will there be some kind of safety net put in place so a random software update doesn't result in all this havoc.

I agree with your first statement. I worked in High Tech for decades....and the work being done in those later 90s to get prepared for Y2K was enormous , and successful
 

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