State services and businesses from airlines to financial services and media groups, were hit by a global IT outage on Friday, causing massive disruption to a vast range of services and operations.
Security experts are calling it the biggest problem of its kind ever. “I don’t think it’s too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history,” said Troy Hunt, a prominent security consultant, in a social media post. “This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time.”
Airports from Sydney to Berlin have faced delays and IT issues. Turkish Airlines reported it was experiencing “problems with ticketing, check-in, and reservation processes”. Aena, Spain’s main airports operator, said it had switched to using manual systems as a result.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said Delta, United and American Airlines had asked to ground flights due to take off.
Sky News had been unable to broadcast live TV on Friday morning, though its services have since been restored. Rail companies also issued alerts of IT issues and possible cancellations. GPs in Britain have reported difficulties in accessing patient data and booking appointments.
Shares in CrowdStrike, whose update is believed to be behind the outages, fell 12 per cent in pre-market trading.
