Some local news stations, Airlines, Businesses Hit by Global Technology Disruption

An internet outage affecting Microsoft is disrupting flights, banks, media outlets and companies across the world, including LEX18's Morning Show, with problems continuing hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.

Airlines in the United States, Europe, Australia and India were reporting problems, with some flights grounded. Retail outlets, banks, railway companies and hospitals in several parts of the world were also affected in what appeared to be an unprecedented internet disruption.

In London, England, the chief executive of the cybersecurity company at the heart of a worldwide Microsoft outage says it is working to fix a defect sent out in a Windows update.

“This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on the social platform X. “The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

Kurtz said there was a defect in a “single content update for Windows hosts.” Mac and Linux hosts were not affected.

The company referred customers to its support portal for updates.

Airlines in the United States, Europe, Australia and India were reporting problems, with some flights grounded. Retail outlets, banks, railway companies and hospitals in several parts of the world were also affected in what appeared to be an unprecedented internet disruption.

Airlines across the world, from Thailand to Australia, India, the United States and several European countries, reported disruptions to check-in systems and other issues that caused flights to be grounded or delayed.

With athletes and spectators from around the world heading to France for the Paris Olympics, the Paris airport authority says its computer systems ″are not impacted″ by the global outage, but several airlines and airports elsewhere are.

As a result, ″this situation has an impact on the operations of airlines at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports: delays in check-in, delays and temporary suspension of some flights. Our teams are mobilized to orient and assist passengers,″ the airport authority said in a statement.

In the U.S., the FAA said the airlines United, American, Delta and Allegiant had all been grounded.

Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, a gateway to one of the world’s most visited cities, reported that some airlines were forced to check in passengers manually due to outages to their systems, while in the country's second largest airport of Don Mueang, Air Asia was also checking passengers in manually. Director of Tourism of Thailand, the country’s tourism authority, told state broadcaster Thai PBS the issue was with Navitaire, an e-commerce platform for air travel, and up to six airports had been affected.

In Germany, flights at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport were halted for several hours from Friday morning due to check-in problems, while some flights were cancelled. An airport spokeswoman said flights resumed after 10 a.m.. Issues were also reported in the busy European hubs of Amsterdam, Zurich and Rome.

In Warsaw, Baltic Hub, a major container hub in the Baltic port of Gdansk, Poland, says it is battling problems resulting from the global system outage. Their entry gates are temporarily closed and they have suspended business, the Baltic Hub said in a statement.

In Paris, Paris Olympics organizers say some Olympic delegations’ arrivals, as well as the delivery of some uniforms and accreditations, have been delayed because of the outage.

The organizers said in a statement that ticketing and the torch relay have not been affected. “Our teams have been fully mobilized to ensure the continuity of operations at optimum levels,” organizers said.

In Rome, Borsa Italiana, the company that manages Milan’s stock exchange, said the “correct disclosure of the index FTSE MIB has been restored.” Earlier Friday, the company had said that the index had not been updated, without providing additional information.

In Jerusalem, Israel’s Cyber Directorate said on Friday that it was among those affected by the global outages, attributing them to a problem with the cybersecurity platform Crowdstrike. The outage also hit the country’s post offices and hospitals, according to the ministries of communication and health.

A recording playing on CrowdStrike’s customer service line said, “CrowdStrike is aware of the reports of crashes on Microsoft ports related to the Falcon sensor." It attributed the problems to one of its products used to block online attacks. It said callers should monitor its customer support portal.