Businesses and services around the world are slowly recovering from the disastrous computer outage that affected computer systems for hours on Thursday and Friday.
Businesses, banks, hospitals and airlines were among the worst hit after cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike released a flawed software update that affected Microsoft Windows systems.
While some airlines are beginning to return to normal service after thousands of flights were cancelled, operators are still expecting some delays and cancellations over the weekend.
It was a global failure of proportions never seen before. which had consequences throughout the planet.
Among the companies most affected were some of the world’s leading banks, airlines, supermarkets, health services and media outlets since the early hours of Friday due to this computer outage.
Some of the famous Times Square marquees, which are lit day and night in the heart of New York, were turned off.
The origin of the problem is associated with an antivirus from the American cybersecurity company Crowdstrike that directly affected the operation of Windows.
Users saw a blue screen on their computers displaying the message “fatal error”.
“The scale of this disruption is unprecedented and will undoubtedly go down in history”Junade Ali of the British Institute of Engineering and Technology told AFP, adding that the last incident of a similar scale occurred in 2017.
A patch was applied by Crowdstrike shortly after the outage occurred.
The company’s CEO, George Kurz, reported that the “defect” was identified, but clarified that It could be “a while” before all systems are back up and running.
The firm has some 24,000 clients worldwide and protects hundreds of thousands of computers.
In a message sent to customers on Friday, Kurtz said the failure was not due to a computer or security attack, but rather a defect in a “content update”.
“As we resolve this incident, I am committed to providing you with full transparency about how it happened and the steps we are taking to prevent something like this from happening again,” Kurtz said.
Microsoft, for its part, assured that the “underlying cause” of the failure has been corrected for its applications.
But the domino effect it generated in some services, such as airports, was already a reality.
Before Friday’s failure, another global system crash was caused by the cyber attack WannaCry May 2017, which affected some 300,000 computers in 150 different countries.
It was a cyberattack that affected an old version of Windows and spread automatically to any computer running the old, unprotected operating system.
Flights on the ground by hours
Services in the affected companies have been gradually restored over the hours. But one of the main industries affected was the the aviation.
Systems for passenger check-in, baggage check-in and flight scheduling were affected by the Windows platform failure.
In Australia, one of the first countries affected, Sydney airport had to ground all planes. The BBC correspondent in that city reported confusion and scenes of chaos when the screens went black and passengers were unable to check in for their flights.
In India, meanwhile, Indira Gandhi Airport in New Delhi decided resort to a manual system because its electronic terminals and screens with flight information were inoperable.
Passengers were instructed to fill out blank boarding passes with their details, as well as luggage identification tags.
Similar scenes were seen in the UK, where 90% of flights from Gatwick and Stansted airports in London were cancelled or delayed.
Similar problems occurred at airports on all continents. Major hubs in Asia, Europe and America had to delay or cancel thousands of flights.
In the United States, airlines United, Delta and American Airlines issued a “stop on global ground” for all your flights.