Microsoft IT outage live: Travellers still stranded as experts warn problem is likely to happen again

It could take weeks for global tech infrastructure to fully recover, experts warn

Huge airport queues as global IT outage causes chaos at Heathrow

CrowdStrike said a significant number of the over 8.5 million devices affected from Friday’s botched software update are back online.

The outage led to over 1,500 cancelled flights in the US and dozens more across the UK for the third day in a row, leaving passengers stranded across airports.

Hospitals, GPs, pharmacies, banks, supermarkets and millions of businesses have also been impacted.

CrowdStrike said the outage was caused by a defect in an update to its “Falcon” cybersecurity defence software for Windows hosts.

Over the weekend, Microsoft released a recovery tool to help repair Windows machines hit by the glitch that affected over 8.5 million devices.

However, experts warned that it could take weeks for global tech infrastructure to fully recover.

“Even if we could guarantee it could be fully fixed on Monday GPs would still need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend, and NHSE should make clear to patients that normal service cannot be resumed immediately,” David Wrigley, deputy chair of GPC England at the BMA, said.

Key Points

• Aviation chaos continues with dozens more cancellations on UK-Europe flights
• Microsoft releases recovery tool to help repair Windows machines hit by CrowdStrike issue
• CrowdStrike gives update on ‘automatic fix’, reveals Australian home affairs minister
• As many as 8.5 million Windows devices affected by IT glitch
• Australia warns of malicious websites after cyber outage
• National Lottery app and website goes down across UK amid global IT outage

[21 July 2024 13:00 · Tara Cobham]

Watch: Doctor shares advice to patients waiting for prescriptions amid global IT outage

[21 July 2024 12:00 · Tara Cobham]

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

A widespread computer outage left flights grounded, TV stations offline and much of the world’s infrastructure not working on Friday.

Cyber security experts said the outage was “unprecedented” in its reach, affecting many of the world’s biggest companies.

The cause of the problems was initially mysterious: Windows computers showed a blue screen of death, or BSOD, as if they had just spontaneously stopped working.

Andrew Griffin reports:

[21 July 2024 11:26 · Travel correspondent Simon Calder]

Aviation chaos continues with dozens more cancellations on UK-Europe flights

Airline passengers are enduring a third day of chaos, with dozens more holiday flights cancelled.

After hundreds of flights were grounded by the IT outage on Friday, knock-on delays have continued through the weekend, with adverse weather in parts of Europe and air-traffic control delays exacerbating the problems.

At London Gatwick, easyJet has so far cancelled 24 flights, including to holiday departures to Faro, Naples and Palma de Mallorca.

Britain's biggest budget airline has also grounded a Manchester-Bordeaux trip, with other cancellations from Manchester on Eurowings to Dusseldorf and Hamburg.

London Heathrow passengers are also hard hit, with British Airways cancelling a dozen flights to and from UK and Continental European destinations – as well as a London City-Faro round trip.

Aer Lingus has grounded a flight between Shannon in the west of Ireland and Heathrow, with Eurowings cancelling a flight from Cologne.

Ryanair has made one round-trip cancellation from its main base, London Stansted: to Milan Bergamo.

[21 July 2024 11:00 · Tara Cobham]

What is Crowdstrike? The $80bn company linked to largest IT outage in history

Before this week, CrowdStrike was known for finding the cause of problems, rather than causing them. The company – headquartered in Austin, Texas, but with a reach across the world – was most famous for having investigated large-scale hacks, such as those on Sony Pictures and breaches at the Democratic National Committee that it blamed on Russian spies.

It has built a huge business out of that and other work. It was worth $80bn (£62bn) when trading on the Nasdaq closed on Thursday – though its share price has since fallen by 20 per cent. It reported revenues of $3bn in the last year.

CrowdStrike was founded in 2011 – by a team that included George Kurtz, the CEO that has been representing the company as it recovers from the problems – and immediately caught the interest of investors. The year after, it launched with a $26m investment round, and it has gathered more investment since.

Our Technology editor Andrew Griffin reports:

[21 July 2024 10:00 · Rebecca Thomas]

NHS England warns of ‘continued disruption’ to GP services into next week

NHS England has warned of “continued disruption” to GP services into next week from the global IT outage.

Across England, GP surgeries reported being unable to book appointments or access patient records on Friday as their EMIS appointment and patient record system went down.

NHS England said on Saturday afternoon that its systems were “coming back online in most areas” but “still running slightly slower than usual”.

An NHS spokesperson said: “As practices recover from the loss of IT systems on Friday, there may be some continued disruption, particularly to GP services, in some areas into next week as practices work to rebook appointments.

“The advice for Monday remains that patients should attend appointments as normal unless told otherwise.”

Dr Fari Ahmad said the IT outage meant “everything went down” in her surgery and the disruption would cause “a lot more issues later on in the week”.

The GP told BBC Breakfast: “We had people who were supposed to come in for results, and we couldn’t see them. We said ‘Sorry, we can’t help you’. We were just trying to deal with the emergencies on the day that really couldn’t wait. We couldn’t do our routine stuff, so the implications for us is a lot of that’s been bumped up.”

The global IT outage affected some GP appointments (PA Archive)

[21 July 2024 09:12 · Tara Cobham]

Australia warns of malicious websites after cyber outage

Australia's cyber intelligence agency has warned “malicious websites and unofficial code” are being released online claiming to aid recovery from Friday's global digital outage.

Australia was one of many countries affected by the outage, which hit media, retailers, banks and airlines, causing havoc worldwide after a botched software update from CrowdStrike.

On Saturday, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) - the country's cyber intelligence agency - said "a number of malicious websites and unofficial code are being released claiming to help entities recover from the widespread outages caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident".

On its website, the agency said its cyber security centre "strongly encourages all consumers to source their technical information and updates from official CrowdStrike sources only".

Cyber Security Minister Clare O'Neil said on social media platform X on Saturday that Australians should "be on the lookout for possible scams and phishing attempts".

Friday's outage hit Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the country's largest bank, which said some customers were unable to make PayID payments, an issue later resolved. National airline Qantas and Sydney airport said planes were delayed but still flying.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said late on Friday that there had been no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or emergency phone systems.

[21 July 2024 08:45 · Tara Cobham]

CrowdStrike gives update on ‘automatic fix’, reveals Australian home affairs minister

The Australian home affairs minister has revealed Crowdstrike is “now close to rolling out an automatic fix to the issue with their update”.

Clare O’Neil said the company at the centre of the world’s biggest-ever IT outage has told the federal government that it is not far off the fix that would enable systems to return online.

Writing on the social media platform X on Sunday, she said: “CrowdStrike informed the meeting this morning that they are now close to rolling out an automatic fix to the issue with their update, as is Microsoft. This should increase the speed at which systems across the economy are back online.”

[21 July 2024 07:00 · Alexander Butler]

NHS warns of continued disruption to GP services next week from global IT outage

[21 July 2024 05:00 · Alexander Butler]

Third of England’s pharmacy drug supplies hit by global IT outage, officials say

A global IT outage hit one-third of drug deliveries to pharmacies in England as chaos impacted thousands of GP practices and hospitals across the country declared critical incidents.

GPs, pharmacies and NHS 111 services across the country suffered major disruption on Friday after an update from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company crashed Microsoft Windows systems.

The IT bug hit EMIS which is used by around 60 per cent of GP practices - 3,700- to access patient records, book appointments and issue prescriptions.

[21 July 2024 04:00 · Alexander Butler]

Mass IT outage shows how exposed services are, says expert

A widespread IT outage affecting sectors from the NHS to transport and banking to media has been described as an unprecedented sign of how exposed services are with a potential overreliance on certain operating systems.

The major disruption could prompt a rethink on whether the most resilient operating systems are being used and whether it is “lazy” to stick with what we know, according to cybersecurity expert Dr Harjinder Lallie.

The associate professor at the University of Warwick described the situation as an IT “catastrophe”.