Those who provide transportation, businesses and government are getting back online after a widespread technology outage. The biggest problem has been air travel. Thousands of flights were canceled and now there’s equipment and people not in the right place. Check ins and security are also having problems. Crowdstrike, a cyber security firm many companies utilize, is at the heart of this.
Everybody is online
The company said there was a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows so it wasn’t a security incident or cyber attack. About 8.5 million devices on Microsoft were affected.
A blog post on Saturday from Microsoft gave the first estimate of the scope of the problem. “We currently estimate that CrowdStrike’s update affected 8.5 million Windows devices, or less than one percent of all Windows machines. While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services.”
It said such a large disturbance is rare but it “demonstrates the interconnected nature of our broad ecosystem.” We’re all connected online.
Austrian doctors are online
A leading doctor organization in Austria reminded that “Yesterday’s incidents underscore how important it is for hospitals to have analogue backups.” There should be more than one way to access records and information.
The organization asked governments for higher data protection, security and to have staff trained to deal with crisis when they happen. By and large, the problems that happened were small and easily dealt with.
Harald Mayer, vice president of the Austrian Chamber of Doctors, put out a statement on their website. “Happily, where there were problems, these were kept small and short-lived and many areas of care were unaffected.”
Germany worried of online scams
The German government’s IT section noted businesses were still struggling. The agency said on its website that “Many business processes and procedures have been disturbed by the breakdown of computer systems.”
Some places that were impacted are returning to normal. The agency noted cyber criminals had tried to take advantage of the disturbance with evidence of phishing, fake websites and that “unofficial” code was in circulation.
The IT section wasn’t sure how the faulty code got into Crowdstrike’s software. European airports were reporting being close to normal.
