A MAJOR global tech outage has sparked chaos with flights grounded and TV channels and banks knocked offline.
The severe issues at Microsoft have crashed computer systems across the world leaving major businesses, newsrooms and television networks all plunged into chaos.
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Sky News has also been rocked by the outages with it going off air completely – leaving viewers baffled by the severe disruption.
Friday’s Sky News breakfast show was wiped off computer and TV screens with a statement apologising for the “interruption” being shown.
Various Microsoft services in the UK, US, Australia, Japan, Germany and New Zealand have all faced tech issues in the last few hours.
The issues have affected people’s ability to access Microsoft 365 apps and services.
Cybersecurity software firm Crowdstrike say they have identified the issue behind the global outage as a flawed anti-viral update.
The firm are reportedly used by Microsoft to handle various updates to their systems.
Microsoft has since announced it is taking “mitigation actions” against the issues.
They said via X: “Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions.
“We remain committed in treating this event with the highest priority and urgency while we continue to address the lingering impact for the remaining Microsoft 365 apps that are in a degraded state.”
In a post on its website, Crowdstrike said: “Crowdstrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows related to the Falcon Sensor.”
They say they are still “working on” fixing it but have since reverted back to the old system to prevent any further disruption.
Senad Arun, founder of cyber research company Imperum, described the chaos as “Crowdstrike Doom’s Day”.
What is CrowdStrike?
The global cyber outage affecting TV channels, banks, hospitals, airports and emergency services appears to relate to an issue at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
IT security firm CrowdStrike ran a recorded phone message on Friday – saying it was aware of reports of crashes on Microsoft’s Windows operating system relating to its Falcon sensor.
A prerecorded message said: “Thanks for contacting CrowdStrike support. CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows… related to the Falcon sensor.”
CrowdStrike, headquartered in Austin, Texas, says it is a global security leader which provides an advanced platform to protect data.
A CrowdStrike update on Friday is said to have caused a critical error in Microsoft operating systems, affecting millions worldwide.
The company regularly updates systems with new anti-virus software.
Cyber expert Troy Hunt told Australian TV network Seven: “It looks like they’ve pushed a bad update, which is presently nuking every machine that takes it.”
Americans have been hit with travel chaos as all American Airlines flights have been grounded due to the outage.
Flights in the air are set to stay airborne until the issue is resolved, say the Federal Aviation Administration.
Major airlines United and Delta operators have also said no flights will take-off.
Concerning reports are also saying 911 emergency lines are down in several states.
Brits have been warned of travel chaos amid the major IT outage.
Ryanair has sent out a warning to passengers urging them to arrive at least three hours early in case of any disruptions.
They claimed the issues were down to a “third party IT issue, which is outside Ryanair’s control and affect all airlines operating across the network”.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has told passengers to expect disruption due to “widespread IT issues”.
The parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern issued the alert across social media.
Gatwick Express urged passengers to be wary of short-notice cancellations throughout the next few hours.
Australia is also facing travel woes with their largest airline, Qantas, being badly affected as flights are grounded and travellers left in the dark.
Mumbai Airport is the latest victim of the tech issues with check-in desks reportedly down for IndiGo, Akasa and SpiceJet flights.
Thousands of people have also reportedly been locked out of their banks due to the outage.
Online services and transactions across banks in Australia have been affected with Beyond Bank Australia saying it was “experiencing intermittent issues”.
They warned customers may face trouble using their cards and accessing any online accounts.
The London Stock Exchange is also affected, claim worrying reports.
So-called Blue Screen of Death errors (BSOD) have appeared on laptop and computer screens across the world for Microsoft users.
The blue screen essentially forces laptops and computers to suddenly shut down and restart.
However, users say they are getting the screen several times back to back, shutting them out of their PC completely.
Self-service screens are also reportedly showing the BSOD in stores throughout Australia such as Woolworths and Coles.
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