Global Cyber Outage Grounds Flights and Disrupts Businesses
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Major Airlines and Companies Hit by Widespread System Outages
In an unprecedented wave of disruptions, major U.S. airlines and various businesses worldwide were hit by a significant cyber outage on Friday, causing widespread chaos and grounding flights. Based on reporting from Reuters, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and Allegiant Air were among the carriers that halted operations shortly after Microsoft resolved a cloud services outage affecting several low-cost carriers.
The ripple effects of the outage extended beyond the aviation industry. In Australia, media outlets, banks, and telecom companies experienced significant disruptions, which the government linked to an issue at global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. According to Downdetector, several banks and telecom companies faced outages, further complicating the situation.
Potential Causes and Responses
CrowdStrike, a leading cybersecurity firm, ran a recorded phone message acknowledging reports of crashes on Microsoft's Windows operating system related to its Falcon sensor. However, they did not specifically mention the Australian outages. Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator, Michelle McGuinness, stated that there was no immediate evidence to suggest a cybersecurity incident.
The outage also affected operations in Spain, where all airports reported a "computer incident." Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, warned passengers of potential disruptions across its network, though it did not detail the nature of these issues.
Woke up this morning to MASSIVE global outage affecting trains, planes, banks, supermarkets around the world. Sky News off air. Microsoft says it’s investigating a US cloud issue. Lots of fingers pointing at an anti-virus update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike.
— Zoe Kleinman (@zsk) July 19, 2024
BBC live page…
Global Impact and Ongoing Investigations
AWS, a major cloud service provider, announced that it was investigating connectivity issues to Windows EC2 instances and Workspaces within its network. The extent to which CrowdStrike's problems or other issues were involved remains unclear. For more insights and updates on cybersecurity incidents and their impacts, visit InfoDecon at Info Decon Stay ahead with accurate reporting and in-depth analysis to protect your business and personal data.
