Live Updates
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IT outage fix deployed but ‘some time’ before all systems restored - Source of global IT outage linked to Microsoft identified but banks, airlines, supermarkets and rail companies remain impacted
- Passengers left in tears as Edinburgh Airport hit by ‘chaos’
- Some NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde systems have been impacted
- Some Scottish councils cannot take card payments and are experiencing difficulties with health services phone lines
- ScotRail unaffected by issues impacting train companies in England
- Scottish Premiership clubs postpone ticket sales due to disruption to ticketing platforms
- Experts say issue could be caused by ‘buggy’ update to global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s products
- CrowdStrike said the global IT outage was ‘not a security incident or cyberattack’
- Morrisons experiencing issues with payments system while Asda, M&S and Iceland say they are unaffected
The source of Friday’s mass IT outage that impacted millions and led to travel chaos across the globe has been found.
Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike said a “defect” in one of its software updates hit Windows operating systems around the world but added that a fix has now been deployed.
The chief executive of CrowdStrike has said he is “deeply sorry” for the incident, but warned it would take “some time” for systems to be fully restored.
Many banks, airlines and media companies remain offline with one IT expert warning that it could even take “weeks” for all computers and systems to be fully restored.
More than 1,000 flights have been cancelled worldwide while rail and air firms in the UK warn of “widespread IT issues”.
Some NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde systems have also been impacted. The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.
Rowlands Pharmacy said none of its till or computers are working but added: “We can hand out prescriptions already ready but will not be able to make up new prescriptions.”
In Scotland, Midlothian Council said it cannot take card payments while East Lothian Council said it is “experiencing technical difficulties with our health services telephone lines”.
ScotRail says it is unaffected as train companies in England cancel services.
Morrisons told STV News it is experiencing issues with its payment system while Asda, M&S and Iceland report no issues.
Meanwhile, football clubs across Scotland have been impacted with Celtic, Hibernian and Hearts postponing ticket sales due to disruption to their online systems.
CrowdStrike president George Kurtz said the problem was caused by a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts”.
He said the company would “make sure that every customer is fully recovered” from the ongoing global IT outage.
Speaking to NBC’s Today Show, Kurtz said many firms were rebooting their computers and coming back online, but said it could still be “some time” before all systems had completely recovered.
“We’ve been on with our customers all night and working with them – many of our customers are rebooting the system and it’s coming up and operational because we fixed it on our end,” he said.
“Some of the systems that aren’t recovering, we’re working with them, so it could be some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover, but it is our mission to make sure that every customer is fully recovered and we’re not going to relent until we get every customer back to where they were and we’ll continue to protect them and keep the bad guys out of their systems.”
Asked if he ever thought an outage of this scale was possible, the CrowdStrike founder said: “Software is a very complex world and there’s a lot of interactions, and always staying ahead of the adversary is a tall task.”
Microsoft said: “We are aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming.”
Industry expert Adam Leon Smith of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, warned that it could even take “weeks” for all computers and systems to be fully restored.
“The fix will have to be applied to many computers around the world. So if computers are getting blue screens and endless loops, it could be more difficult and take days and weeks,” he said.
“Microsoft Windows isn’t the main OS for mission-critical systems, that’s Linux – and so this could have been much worse.”
Ryanair and Edinburgh Airport warn of disruption to its flights
Ryanair continues to be hit with “disruption across the network” alongside BA and other airlines as more than 1,000 flights across the world were cancelled on Friday.
Edinburgh Airport has asked passengers whose flights have been cancelled to leave the airport and contact their airline.
It said that wait times will be longer than usual as it deals with the outage, which has caused its departure board to freeze.
The airport is not accepting incoming flights that are not already in the air.
Glasgow Airport said it is “largely unaffected”.
Service status monitoring website Downdetector said users were reporting issues with Visa, BT, major supermarket chains, banks, online gaming platforms and media outlets.
The Scottish Government said its Resilience Room had been activated to assess the impact of the IT outage across the country.
Government systems are “functioning normally”, a spokesperson said, adding that there had been “minimal impact” on NHS services across the sector.
They said: “In response to worldwide IT issues, the Scottish Government Resilience Room (Sgorr) has been activated to asses any potential impacts across Scotland.”
The statement added: “We are aware of impacts at Edinburgh Airport and would urge those travelling today to check with their operator.
“Impact is being experienced by a limited number of UK rail operators but at the moment ScotRail and the Caledonian Sleeper service is unaffected.
“SGORR will continue to liaise with partners and ministers will be kept updated throughout the day.”
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