It has been a global failure of proportions never seen before.
A problem with the Windows operating system, used on millions of personal, business and public institution computers, has caused problems across the globe.
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 customers 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.
As of 20:00 GMT, more than 5,000 flights have been cancelled worldwide.or around 4.6% of all scheduled services, according to aviation data company Cirium.
Cancellations and delays will cause the effects to extend throughout the weekend.
Effects in Latin America
In Mexico Flights were delayed and some banks had to delay the opening of their branches and suspend transactions.
In ArgentinaThe Crowdstrike breach primarily affected airports, as some airlines experienced computer system outages.
According to the local press, one of the affected companies was the Spanish airline Iberia, which had to carry out the check in of its passengers manually at the Ezeiza international airport, Buenos Aires.
JetSMART had a similar problem, reporting that it was “experiencing intermittence” in its computing services.
Both companies maintained their flights.
In Colombiathe Civil Aeronautics and the airline Latam recommended that passengers check the status of flights, contact their airlines and be alert to possible disruptions.
However, they later confirmed that there were no disruptions to air traffic.
In BrazilLocal media reported that the failure caused instability in the applications of some banks and delays in Azul flights, while other airlines recommended their clients confirm the status of their flights.
In Paraguay Problems were also reported in accessing the applications of two banks.
In Uruguayas of mid-morning on Friday, there were no reports of problems with flights or plaza benches due to the computer failure.
The company responsible for the failure
The computer outage originated from Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity company founded in 2011 and responsible for Protecting the world’s largest companies and systems from attacks and vulnerabilities.
In an initial statement after the outage, Kurtz acknowledged there was a failure, saying: “The problem has been identified, isolated and a fix has been implemented.”
He expressed that Mac and Linux servers are not affected and assured that the incident was not related to security or a cyber attack.
Later, Kurtz said he felt “deeply saddened” by the computer blackout.
Crowdstrike specializes in endpoint security protection to prevent malicious programs from attacking corporate networks from the devices that connect to them, such as cell phones and laptops.
The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and has been publicly traded since 2019.
In fact, global stock indices fell due to the blackout. Crowdstrike shares in particular had fallen 10.8% by Friday afternoon, while Microsoft shares were down 1%.
Since its launch, Crowdstrike has played a key role in helping companies investigate cyberattacks.
In 2016, the US Democratic National Committee – the strategic arm of the Democratic Party – requested the services of Crowdstrike to investigate an intrusion into its computer network.
Bug fixed, but…
Crowdstrike assured that it fixed the flaw, but that it might be “a while” before systems are fully rebooted and operational.
BBC technology correspondent Joe Tidy explained that Systems must be rebooted in “safe mode”then find the file where the erroneous update is and discard it. Then you could turn on the computer in normal mode.
However, this only has an effect on individual devices. In networks of systems this process would have to be done one computer after another.
“That’s incredibly time-consuming and will take organizations days to do at scale,” Tidy said Thursday morning.Essentially we have one of the largest impacts in the world from an IT incident caused by a cybersecurity vendor.”.
On its website, Microsoft suggested Turn devices on and off in succession up to 15 times.
While this may sound like a workaround, Microsoft says that based on user feedback, such restarts were an effective solution for the time being, particularly on computers that have a separate display.
Other services impacted
In Australia, the Sky satellite television service was off the air for several hours before being restored.
In the UK, the London Stock Exchange platform was the first to experience problems.
The British capital’s busy rail lines, meanwhile, warned passengers of delays, saying they had suffered “extensive computer problems.”
The NHS has reported problems with its appointment system, consultations and access to medical records. One doctor told the BBC that I was only seeing patients who were “seriously”.
In Germany, two hospitals were also forced to cancel non-urgent operations, but emergency services continued as normal.
Meanwhile, the Paris Olympics organizing committee said its IT systems were also affected. However, it added that it has contingency plans in place with just one week to go before the opening of the Games.