For some holidaymakers heading somewhere on Friday, Microsoft’s global outage meant major airlines were grounded and GP clinics and pharmacies across the UK were unable to book appointments or get their prescriptions filled. Even Rupert Murdoch’s UK free-to-air terrestrial TV news channel Sky News has gone off the air on July 19, 2024.
Just minutes before 9am BST, Gatwick Airport acknowledged on social media channels that delays should be expected, but passengers were still asked to arrive for their scheduled flights.
“We are impacted by a global Microsoft issue. As a result, passengers may experience some delays during check-in and security screening. Passengers should still arrive at their normal check-in times. We apologize for any inconvenience and are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”
The global blackout was the result of a Microsoft Windows security update, and plans for thousands of passengers and patients did not go as planned this morning. The UK train network was also hit, with Britain’s largest train company – parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern – warning passengers to expect disruption due to a “widespread IT issue”.
Author and entrepreneur Dean Seddon was one of those caught at Gatwick. He was forced to queue outside the airport to catch a British Airways flight to Miami, where the number of stranded passengers reached alarming levels. He thanked Microsoft with a sarcastic message on X (formerly Twitter).
“Depending on where you are in the world, you can’t buy a croissant, go to the doctor or catch a flight because of an IT glitch. This is a stark reminder of the risks associated with our increasing reliance on cloud-based software. The biggest concern in the UK is the EMIS outage, which has forced GPs to write prescriptions themselves,” said Will Jones, head of technology at UK software developers Propel Tech.
Grzegorz Droz, market analyst at Invest Conotoxia, also agrees that the recent blackouts show the dangers of a modern world heavily reliant on technology.
“This incident made us realize how dependent we are on a single technology company, and how serious the consequences can be when a company of that scale fails, from banks and airports to disrupting peak holiday season operations and causing disruption across a range of other sectors,” Droz said. Supermarkets and banks in Germany, Australia and South Africa also suffered when Microsoft went down, and other major institutions around the world reported computer problems that disrupted services.
What’s the real cause of Microsoft’s outage?
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has acknowledged that a service outage affecting millions of people and businesses on July 19 was caused by an update to its Falcon antivirus software, which is designed to protect Microsoft Windows devices from malicious attacks.
Earlier today, the Texas-based company with global reach re-shared a tweet from CEO George Kurtz, in which CrowdStrike announced that it was “actively working with customers impacted by a flaw discovered in a single content update on Windows hosts.” The post also reaffirmed that Mac and Linux hosts were not affected by the global outage and that it was not a security incident or cyberattack.
“The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed. We encourage customers to refer to our support portal for the latest updates, and we will continue to provide complete and ongoing updates on our website,” the post reads.
The article Microsoft service outage grounds flights and leaves passengers stuck for hours was first published in Euronewsweek.
