Major banks, media, airports, and businesses, including the London Stock Exchange (LSEG), have been impacted by a global IT outage stemming from a “defect” in a CrowdStrike update rolled out across Microsoft Windows.
The outage has taken a large slice of the world’s digital infrastructure offline. Microsoft said that it was looking into the issue and would “continue to take mitigation actions.”
However, the IT glitch has already caused havoc with Govia Thameslink Railway, the UK’s busiest train operator, which runs the Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express, and Great Northern services around London, experiencing “widespread IT issues.”
LSEG said it is experiencing “a third-party technical issue” impacting some of its services. However, a spokesperson confirmed that there were no issues with securities trading on the stock exchange.
The outage has prevented company updates from being published to markets through the LSEG’s Regulatory News Service, according to Reuters.
George Kurtz, CEO of US cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike, said in a post on X: “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. 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 mobilised to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers”.
Down Detector, a tracking website, registered outages from several companies, including Sky News. The broadcaster showed viewers an error message indicating that the transmission had gone down.
However, not everyone is affected by the CrowdStrike IT issue. British fintech company Wise told UKTN that there is currently “no disruption” for its customers and they can use its services “normally”.
‘Countless businesses are suffering’
Al Lakhani, CEO of cybersecurity company IDEE, said: “Many people might be thanking Microsoft for their accidental day off, but countless businesses are suffering due to Microsoft’s and their partners’ failure to maintain their services. This incident underscores the importance of businesses thoroughly researching and vetting their cybersecurity solutions before implementation.”
Wil Jones, technical director at Propel Tech, noted that when these outages impact “vital infrastructure, it should give central governments globally pause for thought.”
Jones added: “When one vulnerability can have such global ramifications, should a situation like this ever be exploited by a rogue nation-state or terrorist organisation, it could have devastating consequences globally.”
Airline passengers globally have been delayed due to airport IT systems being down. In the UK, the majority of GP surgeries are experiencing issues with systems, the NHS said.
“This outage is a stark reminder of how dependent the world is on cloud services. From productivity tools to critical infrastructure, a large chunk of technology runs on cloud platforms. This outage showcases the immense power and reach these services hold,” Mark Lloyd, business unit manager at IT firm Axians UK, told UKTN.
“Even the biggest tech giants are not immune to disruptions, and the need for robust redundancy and disaster recovery plans across the board is more critical than ever in this day and age.”
This is a developing story.
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