By AFP & Reuters
SYDNEY: CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said Friday the major outage in his company’s system was not because of a security incident or cyberattack, rather it was a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. The global tech outage disrupted operations in multiple industries, with airlines halting flights, some broadcasters off-air and everything from banking to healthcare hit by system problems. Giving an update on the system, Kurtz said his company was actively working with customers impacted by the fault. “The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website,” he said. He further recommended that organisations ensure they communicate with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. “Our team is fully mobilised to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers,” he added. His statement came hours after a major outage wrought havoc on global computer systems such as Microsoft and CrowdStrike, grounding flights in the United States, derailing television broadcasts in the UK and impacting telecommunications in Australia. Major US air carriers including Delta, United and American Airlines grounded all flights on Friday over a communication issue, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Flights were suspended at Berlin Brandenburg airport in Germany due to a “technical problem”, a spokeswoman told AFP. “There are delays to check-in, and flight operations had to be cancelled until 10:00 am (0800 GMT),” the spokeswoman said, adding that she could not say when they would resume. All airports in Spain were experiencing “disruptions” from an IT outage that has hit several companies worldwide on Friday, the airport operator Aena said. Hong Kong’s airport also said some airlines had been affected, with its authority issuing a statement in which it linked the disruption to a Microsoft outage. The UK’s biggest rail operator meanwhile warned of possible train cancellations due to IT issues, while photos posted online showed large queues forming at Sydney Airport in Australia. “Flights are currently arriving and departing however there may be some delays throughout the evening,” a Sydney Airport spokesman said. “We have activated our contingency plans with our airline partners and deployed additional staff to our terminals to assist passengers.” Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator said the “large-scale technical outage” was caused by an issue with a “third-party software platform”, adding there was no information as yet to suggest hacker involvement.
