Users and companies from different industries around the world, including banking, aeronautics, media and the health sector, are recovering after a massive computer blackout of the system Microsoft Windowscaused by an update of a antivirus in the cloud of the company CrowdStrike.
The outage was caused by a bug in a software update from CrowdStrike – a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas – for the Windows 10 operating system, as explained by the company’s own CEO on his account of the X platform, which led to computers getting stuck in the so-called ““blue screen of death”.
“This is not a security incident or a cyber attack,” he said.wrote George Kutz, president of CrowdStike, early Friday morning, as companies around the world, from Australia to the US, reported system outages.
Kutz apologized for the disruptions and said a fix had been distributed to one of its cloud-based cyberattack monitoring and remediation agents, but some Windows-based computers may require some time to be updated and returned to normal.
Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt, head of the popular online cybersecurity and network status portal HaveIBeenPwned, said today that the global dimension of the Windows 10 system crash represents “the largest computer blackout in history.”
“This is basically what we were worried about with the ‘Y2K Effect’, except this time it actually happened.”“, explained the expert in reference to the blackout that was feared in the year 2000 when computer equipment had to change its clocks to the new millennium, something that did not cause any major problems.
Major airlines around the world, including American Airlines, Delta and United, were forced to cancel or delay flights globally due to the outage, causing long lines at airports.
More than 31,000 flights were delayed and another 3,600 cancelled across the country today, according to data from the FlightAware website, the majority of flights across the country at some point, something not seen since September 11, 2001.
Ports in major US cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Houston also reported delays in operations due to the blackout, US media reported.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an interview with CNBC that flight cancellations and delays are expected to continue throughout Friday.
“Flights are scheduled so closely, one after the other, that even after the problem has been addressed, you can still see the impacts during the day.”“The official said, adding that air traffic control systems were not affected by the blackout.
The Windows system outage also affected the health sector: in Houston, home to the world’s largest medical complex, the outage caused appointments to be cancelled or patient information to be inaccessible for several hours at some centres.
The Kaiser Permanente medical system, which runs about 40 hospitals and has more than 12 million clients nationwide, was also affected, in a situation “without precedents“a company spokesman told The New York Times, which reported problems with the transplant process.
Biopharmaceutical company Amgen also reported being affected by the computer outage; in a statement posted on its website today, it reported that they are “assessing the impact” of the outage on the systems and working to “recover them as soon as possible.”
Shipping companies UPS and FedEx were also affected by the system outage and warned that there may be delays in package delivery throughout the day.
The movement of people and goods across the southern U.S.-Mexico border was also slowed by the computer outage; pedestrian and vehicle traffic in San Ysidro, California, was in “chaos” on Friday due to the computer failure.
CrowdStrike released an emergency fix for Microsoft Windows users this morning, and hours later its CEO said its engineers had resolved the problem, although he warned that it may take some time for some customers to get back up and running.
“We know what the problem is. We have already solved it. Now we are recovering the systems that are out there,” Kurtz said in an interview with NBC News.
Source: Gestion
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
