Massive restrictions What you need to know now about the global IT disruption
Airlines and hospitals in many countries are struggling with computer problems. How did this happen? What you need to know now.
19.07.2024, 11:44
19.07.2024, 13:35
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- A computer problem has brought public life to a partial standstill.
- Numerous airports and airlines shut down operations.
- Problems have been reported from numerous countries.
Computer problems are disrupting air traffic in many places around the world. blue News provides you with an overview of what is known so far and the aspects that are still unclear.
You can findall the latestinformation on the outage in our ticker.
What is affected?
There were massive restrictions in Switzerland. Swissport, for example, was severely affected by the worldwide IT breakdown on Friday. The global service company based in Opfikon near Zurich Airport reported the failure of most check-in facilities in Switzerland. Check-in must therefore largely be carried out manually.
Landings were also no longer possible at Zurich Airport. Only flights that were already en route were allowed to land.
There were also restrictions in Basel, but mainly in ground handling. There were no restrictions in Geneva.
In Germany, the airport in Berlin had to suspend operations at the start of the vacation season of all times. Air traffic was also severely disrupted in Hamburg.
In the USA, the FAA stopped flights by airlines such as United, American and Delta. In northern Germany, several clinics canceled planned operations. In the UK, a system for booking doctors' appointments in the NHS was paralyzed. The British television station Sky News and the London Stock Exchange also struggled with problems.
Where are there disruptions everywhere?
Problems were reported in numerous countries. The worst affected countries include the USA, India and Australia.
Was it a cyberattack?
According to initial findings, there are no indications of this.
So what caused the disruptions?
There was no clear answer at first. In the first few hours, IT experts only gradually worked their way to the cause of the problem. One central theory: one trigger could have been a bug in a program update from the IT security company Crowdstrike. This in turn interfered with software from software giant Microsoft, among others. The latest update is currently being withdrawn, a Crowdstrike spokesperson told the US broadcaster CNBC.
How much longer will it take?
After a few hours, there were initial signs that the situation was normalizing. However, the situation is still unstable. There are repeated reports of systems crashing again after starting up.
What does Crowdstrike do?
The American company plays a central role in protecting against IT threats and secures websites, among other things. One of its products, called Falcon, is used to detect malicious activity in data traffic. According to media reports, a faulty Falcon update may have caused the disruption.
How great is the financial damage caused by the outages?
That will probably take weeks or months to estimate. In addition to the immediate costs, subsequent claims by affected customers could also play a role. Crowdstrike's share price felt the effects of the problems in pre-market trading, falling by more than 20 percent at times.
How is it possible for a provider to experience problems on such a broad front?
One reason is the concentration in the tech industry. A service provider often serves thousands of companies. Problems with them then have a broad impact. In the past, mistakes made by IT security companies have paralyzed dozens of websites at once.
With material from SDA
