No back-up for key services during global tech outage
![The global internet outage impacted air and rail travel, hospitals, banking, retail, and media. (AP PHOTO)](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-15414859/9a09567a446dcf0c816ace9fb7cfdb46a205b50c-16x9-x0y0w1280h720.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
The global tech outage related to issues at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and Microsoft brought crucial sectors around the world to a virtual standstill.
With the timing of the outage making Australia among the first in line to feel the impact, here are some of the major international disruptions as the day wore on.
AIR TRAVEL
Airports and airlines around the globe warned of flight cancellations, delays or switched to manual check-ins, with many planes grounded.
- Berlin airport temporarily halted all flights while Lufthansa's Eurowings stopped domestic German flights as well as flights to and from Britain for several hours.
- Roughly 90 per cent of flights at London Gatwick Airport and London Stansted Airport had been delayed or cancelled.
- Spanish airport operator Aena reported a computer systems incident, while Lisbon airport, Portugal's biggest, Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport and Brussels airport all had problems.
- Top Dutch airline KLM said it could not handle flights on Friday and had suspended most of its operations. Air France, also said its operations were disrupted.
- Major US carriers including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines halted flights on Friday morning, citing communication issues.
EMERGENCY SERVICES, HEALTHCARE
- The UK's National Health Service said bookings of doctors' appointments and patient records were disrupted, but emergency services had not been affected.
- Several hospitals in the Netherlands had to scale down their operations, Dutch press agency ANP reported.
- Two hospitals in the northern German cities of Luebeck and Kiel cancelled elective operations scheduled for Friday.
- Non-profit hospital chain Mass General Brigham said the outage affected many of its systems. Due to the severity of the issue, it cancelled all previously scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures and medical visits for the day.
- Laboratory service provider Labcorp said the outage was impacting some of its business systems, call centre operations and results delivery, including physician and patient portals.
- Hospital operator Providence said it restored a key functionality allowing nurses, physicians and caregivers to access patient records and perform clinical documentation, but other clinical applications and workstations were still impacted.
FINANCIALS
- JPMorgan Chase & Co said that the majority of its ATMs were operating normally and that the bank was working to restore service to the remaining ATMs.
- Several major oil and gas trading desks in London and Singapore were struggling to execute trades, six industry sources told Reuters. The Singapore Exchange said some services including its price feed web service were momentarily impacted.
- London Stock Exchange Group's's Workspace news and data platform suffered an outage that affected user access worldwide, causing disruption across financial markets. It said in a client memo that technical problems on FX spot and forward rates had been resolved and services restored.
- German insurer Allianz said it was experiencing a major outage that was impacting employees' ability to log on to their computers.
MEDIA
- Britain's Sky News resumed broadcasting after an hours-long outage, but was operating at minimal capacity and without many of its usual services.
SHIPPING, LOGISTICS
- Maersk said the outage affected some of its operated terminals, but all were back in operation within a few hours.
- FedEx Corp said that its network was now operating across the globe after it faced substantial disruptions. Rival UPS also warned of potential delivery delays.
- Rail operator Union Pacific said the CrowdStrike software outage had "varying levels of impact" across its network, but backup protocols helped it communicate with its teams and dispatchers. It later said its network was open to business.
OTHERS
- The Paris Olympics organising committee said the cyber outage was slowing its operations, but the impact was limited and ticket sales were unaffected
- Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker, said it briefly halted production and despatch operations. It resumed operations and did not expect a material impact from the incident.
- Soccer club Manchester United said on X that it had to postpone a scheduled release of tickets.
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