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| Manual flight announcements and check-ins at HK Airport (RTHK photo) |
Online operations of big companies, including airlines and airports all over the world, ground to a halt, or at least went back to manual, today after an update on security software that protects their Windows-based computers from cyber attacks caused widespread shutdowns.
A live blog by the New York Times noted that the shutdowns was
“a stunning example of the fragile dependence the global economy has on certain
software and the cascading effect it can have when things go wrong.”
“This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” the Times
quoted George Kurtz, chief executive of CrowdStrike. “The issue has been
identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”
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| PINDUTIN DITO |
But experts said going back to normal could take time.
The first indications of the crisis – caused by a
malfunctioning update in the CrowdStrike cybersecurity software -- were felt by
the public at airports, where most flights were delayed and many passengers were
unable to board their planes on schedule.
Hong Kong International Airport, Sydney Airport, Berlin
Brandenburg Airport, Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Denver International
Airport, and Manchester Airport in Britain saw long lines in their departure
areas.
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| TAWAG NA! |
In the Philippines, Cebu Pacific said in an advisory that it
was experiencing technical issues, which “requires us to handle affected
processes manually, potentially causing delays.”
“This is a developing situation,” it said.
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| Chaos at NAIA: Cebu Pacific and AirAsia say they were affected |
In contrast, Philippine Airlines appeared unaffected as its website was left untouched by the tech glitch.
In its website, AirAsia said it was affected by the global
IT issue, “affecting reservations for AirAsia and other airlines’ flights on
our platform.”
It added: “Other services such as flight check-in, Flight +
Hotel bookings, AirAsia Points issuance and redemption and duty-free are
unavailable at the moment. We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve
this issue promptly.”
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| The worldwide glitch was caused by a failed security update for Windows-based computers |
The disruption was not limited to airlines, with news reports citing banks, supermarkets and media companies as among the businesses reporting the outages. Even emergency 911 lines in multiple states in the US were affected.
The Times also reported that at least three major U.S.
airlines -- American, United and Delta -- grounded all flights, according to
the Federal Aviation Administration.
In Japan, even McDonald’s temporarily closed 30 percent of its stores and limited operations at others because of malfunctioning cash registers.
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| PRESS FOR DETAILS |
