Banks, airlines, GPs, supermarkets and media companies are among those who have suffered a major IT outage this morning as they were taken offline.
American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines flights were among those grounded while rail companies were warning of “widespread IT issues”.
The IT outage has also reached the UK’s GP surgeries, with staff unable to patient records or book appointments.
The impact on the emergency services is currently unknown.
It is understood that the outage is related to an issue with global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and Microsoft and is affecting Windows PCs worldwide.
CrowdStrike chief executive, George Kurtz, took to X (formerly Twitter) to explain that “the defect [was] found in a single content update for Windows hosts This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.’
Cyber-security experts have said that while there is now a software fix, it will take a lot of work to get computers back up and running.
Al Lakhani, CEO of IDEE said: “CrowdStrike’s platform approach, which relies on a single agent focused on detection, can create significant issues. For instance, agents require installation and maintenance of software on multiple different OSes, adding layers of complexity and potential points of failure. Moreover, agents can become a single point of failure, as a bad update can compromise the entire network, as seen with the SolarWinds attack.
“The lesson here is blindingly obvious: investing in cybersecurity is not just about acquiring the latest or most popular tools but ensuring those tools are reliable and resilient. This is why businesses must prioritise agentless solutions like MFA 2.0, which reduce the risk of widespread failures and ensure more resilient defences.”
