Microsoft IT outage live: Crowdstrike update sparks global chaos for airlines, hospitals and banks

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 that they would see delays and technical issues.

Microsoft 365 said that it was investigating the problem and “continue to take mitigation actions”.

Follow live for all the latest on the outage.

Key Points

• Microsoft says it is ‘investigating’ problem

• Cyber security software linked with outage

• Complicated workaround found

Read our full report on the outages here

09:38 , Andrew Griffin

You can read our full report on the outages here.

World brought to a halt by drastic Microsoft outage

NHS urges people to keep attending and booking blood appointments

13:03 , Andrew Griffin

The NHS says that it is receiving calls from blood donors who are concerned about whether they will still be able to donate as usual. It is looking to reassure donors that they should still attend and book appointments as usual – and is looking to remind the UK that it still has an urgent need for people with O negative blood.

“NHS Blood and Transplant are calling on donors to book and keep appointments to donate blood to boost NHS resilience at this time.” an NHS Blood and Transplant spokesperson said. “|There remains a particularly urgent need for O negative blood.

“Blood donation systems are not affected and we currently have a high number of appointments available at our donor centres in major towns and cities, including London, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham. Blood is needed 24/7, 365 days a year so we urgently need people to keep filling appointments in coming days, weeks and months.”

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

12:52 , Andrew Griffin

Before this week, CrowdStrike was primarily known for fixing problems. Or maybe for the fact that it sponsors the “halo” that protects Lewis Hamilton in the event of a crash in his Formula One car.

Now, it will forever be linked with what might be the “largest IT outage in history”.

What is CrowdStrike, though? You can find out everything on the company here.

‘The largest IT outage in history’

12:26 , Andrew Griffin

Cyber security expert Troy Hunt says that it is not “too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history”.

“This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time,” he wrote.

(That’s a reference to the year 2000 problem, which you can read about here; everyone worried, but very little actually broke. In the time since, it has become an example of a widely feared problem that failed to turn up, though security experts will note that’s because people worked so hard to avoid it, not because it was never actually a problem.)

‘Blue Screens of Death’ appear across the world

12:24 , Andrew Griffin

The error messages that Windows users are seeing around the world aren’t only on desks. You can see them everywhere – such as in airports.

United Airlines expects problems to continue throughout Friday

12:13 , Andrew Griffin

In a statement to The Independent, the airline said: “A third-party software outage impacted computer systems worldwide, including at United.

“We are resuming some flights but expect schedule disruptions to continue throughout Friday. We have issued a waiver to make it easier for customers to change their travel plans via United.com or the United app.”

Some cancer radiotherapy appointments rescheduled due to outage

12:04 , Holly Bancroft

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust said on Friday morning that radiotherapy treatments at their hospitals had been impacted by the outage. They have declared a critical incident, saying that they are “currently unable to deliver our scheduled radiotherapy treatments”.

A spokesperson added: “This issue has affected Varian, the IT system we use to deliver radiotherapy treatments. We have contacted our patients who were due to have radiotherapy this morning to reschedule appointments while we work to fix these issues.”

British Airways says some flights might be disrupted

12:00 , Andrew Griffin

British Airways says that “some” flights might be disrupted and advises people to check their flight status.

“Due to the widely-reported global Microsoft IT outage, some of our flights may experience disruption today. Our teams are working hard to manage the impact of this issue as quickly as possible.

“Please visit our flight status page for the most up-to-date information on your flight. We apologise for any potential impact to your travel plans.

“If you have a connecting flight as part of the same ticket and there’s a chance you may miss your connection, we’ll automatically rebook your onward journey. Please check Manage My Booking.

“Our call centres are also experiencing issues. We’ve introduced greater flexibility on ba.com for customers travelling today on our short-haul network. This flexibility will enable you to make changes to your booking via Manage My Booking free of charge.

“Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

CrowdStrike finally speaks out about problem

11:12 , Andrew Griffin

George Kurtz, CrowdStrike’s president and chief executive, has finally addressed the issue. He says that it is not a cyber attack, and that a fix has been deployed for the issue.

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted,” he wrote.

“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.

“We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels.

“Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”

GPs and pharmacies hit by global IT outage disrupting appointment bookings and prescriptions

11:05 , Andrew Griffin

The problems have hit GPs and pharmacies, the NHS has said. The full story is here.

Train companies apologise and say they are working to fix problems

11:04 , Simon Calder

Rail firms across the UK have been hit by the outage. The Rail Delivery Group, representing train operators, said in a statement: “Train operators have been affected by ongoing global IT issues which may result in some short notice service changes and cancellations, also impacting real-time information screens and services at stations. We are sorry for any customers experiencing disruption to their journeys today; staff are working hard to resolve the issues as soon as possible.

“Most trains are still running across the country and rail staff will be able to provide the latest information to customers in person. You can also visit the National Rail Enquiries website for the latest updates.”

Father of the internet had warned about the ‘fragility’ of our online systems

11:01 , Andrew Griffin

In what now appears a very prescient warning, father of the internet Vint Cerf had warned only this week that the internet was fragile. That was among his many warnings about the threats his creation faces as it reaches its 50th birthday.

You can read the story here.

Problem does not appear to be a ‘mega cyber attack’, expert says

10:47 , Andrew Griffin

Dan Card, of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and a cyber security expert said: “People should remain calm whilst organisations respond to this global issue. It’s affecting a very wide range of services from banks to stores to air travel.

“It looks like a bug to a regular security update, rather than any form of ‘mega cyber attack’, but this is still causing worldwide challenges and is likely to require a large number of people to make manual remedial steps

“Companies should make sure their IT teams are well supported as it will be a difficult and highly stressful  weekend for them as they help customers of all kinds. People often forget the people that are running around fixing things.”

US secretary of transportation says he will ‘

10:35 , Andrew Griffin

Peter Buttigieg, the US secretary of transportation, posted overnight to say that his department will hold all airlines ‘to their responsibilities to meet the needs of passengers’.

(His post specifically calls out Frontier – but that is presumably because it was posted early in the outage, before the full scale became clear.)

Washington DC Metro delays opening amid problems

10:33 , Andrew Griffin

The outage has led Washington, DC to delay the opening of its Metro service. It usually opens at 5am – but is still closed.

London Stock Exchange hit by issues as markets drop

10:28 , Press Association

Some London Stock Exchange services were suffering disruptions on Friday amid a global IT outage that has affected companies around the world.

The LSE said securities trading was unaffected by the outage, but its regulatory news service was not working on Friday morning.

A spokesperson said: “We are currently experiencing a third party technical issue which is impacting some of our services.

“There is no impact to securities trading on the London Stock Exchange. We are working on resolving this issue as soon as possible and will continue to provide updates to our customers.”

Meanwhile, payments giant Visa said it was unaffected by the outage, meaning payment processing on its systems is continuing as normal.

A spokesperson for Visa said: “There is no indication of any impact on Visa’s ability to process payments from this issue.

“Our systems are operating normally.

“We are aware of reports of people being unable to make payments and are working with our financial institution clients to understand any impact on their services to cardholders and merchants.”

London markets dropped in value after news of the IT failure, which has caused issues around the world for banks, supermarkets, airlines and other major institutions.

The FTSE 100 fell 0.8% in early trading as investors were spooked by the outage potentially hitting companies’ bottom lines if it goes on too long.

Supermarkets unable to take payments

10:22 , Andrew Griffin

The issues appear to be affecting checkouts at supermarkets. Some report that their systems have gone offline entirely, while others say their payment systems have stopped working.

Here’s one of those affected checkouts in Australia:

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

10:06 , Andrew Griffin

How could one piece of software take down TV stations and airports? It’s all explained here.

Stansted Airport taking cash payments and doing manual check-ins

10:05 , Annabel Grossman

In a statement to The Independent it said: “Some retail payment machine services have been impacted but they are slowly coming back online, and cash/pdq payments being taken in the meantime, and while some airline check-in services have reverted to being done manually – this will take longer than normal for passengers if they haven’t already checked-in before coming to the airport – all of the airports main operational systems are unaffected and flights are still operating this morning.”

Sky News comes back online

09:52 , Press Association

Sky News has returned back to air after the broadcaster was affected by the major IT outage affecting businesses across the world.

After welcoming viewers back to the channel, the morning anchor reported on the news saying: “A major global IT outage is hitting businesses worldwide, including here at Sky News.”

The presenters referred to printed out notes during the report on Friday morning as the broadcaster got back on its feet.

Sky News’ online page, YouTube and TV channel previously displayed an apology for the interruption to the broadcast.

Following the outage, a Sky News spokesperson said in a statement to the PA news agency: “Sky News has not been able to broadcast live TV this morning, we apologise for the interruption.

“All the news is still available online, on the Sky News app, website, and across our social media accounts.

“We are working hard to restore all services.”

During the disruption, Sky News sports presenter Jacquie Beltrao shared a photo of the breakfast team in a post on X, formerly Twitter, and said the team were “obviously not on air” but that they are “trying” to return.

Cyber security expert says outage is ‘unprecedented’

09:50 , Andrew Griffin

“The worldwide IT outage experienced this morning is unprecedented in the range and scale of systems it has impacted. Although we cannot speculate on the cause of this outage just yet, it appears that this might be a server error emanating from one server supplier,” says Harjinder Lallie, a cyber security expert from the University of Warwick.

“This IT ‘catastrophe’ highlights the need for greater resilience, a greater focus on backup systems, and possibly even a need to rethink whether we are using the most resilient operating systems for such critical systems”

Yet more airports report problems

09:49 , Andrew Griffin

Heathrow airport has just issued a statement: “Microsoft is currently experiencing a global outage which is impacting select systems at Heathrow. Flights are operational and we are implementing contingency plans to minimise any impact on journeys. Passengers are advised to check with their airline for the latest flight information.”

Eurowings, the budget airline of Lufthansa, says: “Due to an IT malfunction, there are currently disruptions in global air traffic. The check-in and boarding processes are impaired and online check-in is not possible. There may be delays and flight cancellations. Please check your flight status.”

Problem is widespread and international

09:38 , Andrew Griffin

Recent reports have seen issues everywhere, including the US, Australia, India, Spain and Poland.

Much of the US is still asleep – but even still, its biggest airlines have grounded flights.

UK’s busiest train operator says it is ‘experiencing widespread IT issues’

09:35 , Andrew Griffin

The UK’s busiest train operators, Govia Thameslink, says: “We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network. Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem.

“We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks.”

Driver diagrams involve the rosters for train drivers and rolling stock.

Govia Thameslink added: “Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected.

“We will provide additional updates when we can. In the meantime, please regularly check your journey before you travel.”

CrowdStrike cyber security software thought to be cause of outage

09:31 , Andrew Griffin

A number of cybersecurity experts are reporting that a faulty update from CrowdStrike could be the cause of the outage.

Toby Murray, associate professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at The University of Melbourne, said: “CrowdStrike Falcon has been linked to this widespread outage. CrowdStrike is a global cybersecurity and threat intelligence company.

“Falcon is what is known as an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platform, which monitors the computers that it is installed on to detect intrusions – hacks – and respond to them. That means that Falcon is a pretty privileged piece of software in that it is able to influence how the computers it is installed on behave.

“For example, if it detects that a computer is infected with malware that is causing the computer to communicate with an attacker, then Falcon could conceivably block that communication from occurring. If Falcon is suffering a malfunction then it could be causing a widespread outage for two reasons – one: Falcon is widely deployed on many computers, and two: because of Falcon’s privileged nature.

“Falcon is a bit like anti-virus software: it is regularly updated with information about the latest online threats – so it can better detect them. We have certainly seen anti-virus updates in the past causing problems e.g. here.

“It is possible that today’s outage may have been caused by a buggy update to Falcon.”

Departure boards malfunctioning at Edinburgh airport

09:26 , Simon Calder

Screens are glitching, showing out-of-date information or going blank. Passengers are reporting long queues at check-in and security.

The airport tweeted: “An IT system outage means wait times are longer than usual at the airport.

“This outage is affecting many other businesses, including airports.

“Work is ongoing to resolve this and our teams are on hand to assist where we can. Passengers are thanked for their patience.”

Booking and check-in are currently unavailable with Ryanair

09:15 , Annabel Grossman

On its website Ryanair has warned passengers of disruptions. At 7.16am it posted the message: “We’re currently experiencing disruption across the network due to a Global 3rd party IT outage, which is entirely out of our control.

“Booking and check-in are currently unavailable. If you are due to travel today (19 July) and have yet to check-in for your flight, you can do so at the airport.”

More train operators hit by problems

09:10 , Andrew Griffin

TransPennine Express says that it might not be possible to buy tickets

Train operator TransPennine Express has told passengers: “Please be aware that some TPE stations and systems are having IT issues. Please purchase tickets on board if you are unable to do so in stations.”

easyJet has grounded a round trip to Berlin

09:09 , Simon Calder

The airline stated: “We’re sorry that your flight has been cancelled.

“This is due to some IT system issues that are effecting multiple airports across Europe.

“We understand that this will be disappointing news and we want to make it as easy as possible for you to make new plans, so here’s everything you need to know about what to do next.

“This disruption is not isolated to easyJet and is affecting all airlines which is considered to be an extraordinary circumstance outside of our control.”

Delta, United and American airlines flights are grounded

08:54 , Andrew Griffin

The US Federal Aviation Administration’s live data shows that as of this morning all Delta, United and American have stopped. It says there is a “communication issue”, though it is not clear whether it is linked to the same problems.

RyanAir advises travellers to arrive early

08:49 , Andrew Griffin

In a tweet, the airline says it is experiencing issues because of a “global third party IT outage”. It advises people arrive “at least 3 hours before” their flight.

“We’re currently experiencing disruption across the network due to a Global 3rd party IT outage which is out of our control. We advise all passengers to arrive at the airport at least 3 hours before their scheduled departure time.

“If you’re due to travel today and have not already checked-in for your flight, you can do so at the airport. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of this Global 3rd party IT outage.”

Complicated workaround found for problem

08:43 , Andrew Griffin

The issue appears to relate to a problem update from cyber security company CrowdStrike. Its representatives say that it has been rolled back – but that will not fix those computers that have already been affected.

It can seemingly be sorted by deleting the file and restarting the computer. You can find full instructions to do so on Reddit.

It is slightly complicated, however. It also needs administrators to have access to the computer, which might not be easy if the computers are being used remotely – such as in an airline or TV station.

Microsoft 365 says it is is ‘investigating’

08:36 , Andrew Griffin

Microsoft 365 say they are investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access apps and services.

“Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions,” they said on X this morning.

“We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue.”

It comes amid reports of widespread IT outages affecting airlines, broadcasters and banks.

Hello and welcome…

08:32 , Andrew Griffin

… to The Independent’s live coverage of a major Microsoft outage taking much of the world’s infrastructure offline.