Global computer outage: towards a very gradual return to normal

This article was originally published in English

Towards a gradual return to normal for businesses and services around the world impacted by a massive computer outage that affected computer systems for hours between Thursday and Friday.

Airlines, banks and hospitals were among the worst hit after cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike released a faulty software update that caused computers running Microsoft Windows to crash.

Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz apologized for the chaos and said the company had issued a fix, but warned it would take “some time” before all systems are operating normally.

“The entire Crowdstrike team continues to work closely with affected customers and partners to ensure all systems are restored,” he said in a message posted on X.

Claudia Plattner, Germany’s head of cybersecurity, also warned that given the scale of the outage, full recovery could take weeks.

“I can promise you that it will not be a matter of hours, I can assure you. We are currently receiving information that some of the affected people have already restarted their computer systems. This means that we are already in the recovery process. However, it is to be expected that it will take some time before the situation returns to normal.”she said at a press conference in Bonn.

The system outage caused chaos across Germany’s healthcare sector, with major university hospitals in cities such as Kiel and Lübeck forced to close and cancel all non-urgent operations.

“In aviation, no plane flies because they can’t see who the passenger is. So you have to imagine that in hospitals, you don’t know which patient is actually lying down, what medications they are receiving, what surgery is planned. This information is simply not available.”said Jens Scholz, chairman of the board of directors of the University Hospital of Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel.

Some air services are also starting to return to normal after thousands of flights were cancelled, but operators expect delays and cancellations to continue throughout the weekend.

Polish airports have urged passengers to check the status of their flights and arrive three hours before the scheduled departure time. Wizz Air said the check-in system at Warsaw airport was down and online check-in was also affected.

Greece has seen similar chaos. While the country was largely unaffected by the glitch, flight delays and long lines were seen at the country’s major airports. While flights were able to land in Athens, they were unable to depart because departures were controlled by the system affected by Microsoft’s digital outage.

In the Netherlands, Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport also reported problems with flights affected, as did airports in Germany, the UK, New Zealand, Japan and India. Switzerland’s largest airport, Zurich, prevented planes from landing.

Several European airlines, such as KLM and Ryanair, have reported that their customers are unable to check in online.

What is the cause of this global outage?

In a statement Friday, Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz confirmed that a “flaw” in a content update for Windows machines caused the outage.

“Crowdstrike is actively working with customers affected by a flaw found in a single content update for Windows hosts”Kurtz said.

“Mac and Linux hosts are not affected. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed.”

Crowdstrike advised its customers to refer to its support portal for updates, and for organizations that use its services to continue communicating with Crowdstrike representatives. “through official channels.”

“Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of Crowdstrike customers”Mr. Kurtz concluded.

Initial reports on Friday suggested that an update to the cybersecurity firm’s antivirus software had gone awry and caused the outage.

The incident knocked 15% off Crowdstrike’s stock when markets opened on Friday, equivalent to $12.5 billion (11.5 billion euros).

Dependence on a single supplier

In the wake of this disruption, experts agree that we need to move away from relying on a handful of large, centralized platforms to remotely manage our devices.

Chris Dimitriadis, a cybersecurity expert and global chief strategy officer at IT governance association ISACA, called the outage a “real crisis”.

“When one service provider in the digital supply chain is impacted, the entire chain can collapse, leading to large-scale outages. This incident is a clear example of what could be called a digital pandemic – a single point of failure impacting millions of lives around the world,” did he declare.

“This failure is the result of an increasingly complex and interconnected digital world, and this failure is exactly why cyber resilience is essential to ensuring the safety, security and well-being of citizens, as well as a key driver of the global economy.”