A widespread technology outage disrupted operations across flights, banks, media outlets, and companies around the world on Friday, causing significant delays and inconveniences.
The outage primarily affected Microsoft services, with the company reporting issues accessing Microsoft 365 apps and services. Despite efforts to resolve the issue, disruptions continued for hours. According to DownDetector, the outage also impacted other services such as Visa, ADT Security, and Amazon, along with airlines like American Airlines and Delta.
The disruption was particularly severe for airlines and airports globally. In the U.S., airlines including United, American, Delta, and Allegiant were grounded, causing chaos for travelers. At Los Angeles International Airport, passengers slept on jetway floors due to delayed flights. Similar scenes were reported in the U.K., Europe, and India, where airlines and airports struggled with manual check-in processes and extended wait times. Edinburgh Airport and London’s Stansted Airport experienced long queues and delays, while Melbourne Airport in Australia saw passengers stranded and flights delayed.
In Israel, the outage affected post offices and hospitals, attributed to a problem with the cybersecurity platform Crowdstrike. Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) and hospitals in Germany also reported issues, with some elective surgeries canceled.
Media outlets were not spared, with major disruptions reported in Australia. News broadcasters like ABC and Sky News experienced sudden shutdowns of Windows-based systems, leading to live broadcasts from dark offices. In South Africa, banks faced nationwide service disruptions, affecting customers’ ability to make payments.
New Zealand’s acting prime minister, David Seymour, stated that officials were assessing the impact but had no evidence of malicious cyber activity. The global nature of the outage highlighted the interconnectedness and vulnerability of modern technological systems.
Microsoft is working on rerouting impacted traffic to alternate systems to restore service availability. The company has not yet provided further details on the cause of the outage.
Source: Ap News
