Multiple services, ranging from airlines to healthcare, around the world are slowly recovering after a massive IT outage affected computer systems for hours yesterday. The widespread Microsoft software outage impacted millions of people globally.
Businesses, banking services, hospitals, and airline operations were among the worst-hit after US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike issued a faulty software update that affected Microsoft Windows’s operating system, rendering devices around the world inoperable.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated in a social media post that they are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers with technical guidance and support to bring the systems back online safely.
CrowdStrike’s CEO apologized for the disruption and said a fix had been issued. He admitted that it will take some time before all systems are back up and running.
While some airline services are beginning to return to normal after thousands of flights were canceled, operators expect some delays and cancellations to persist through the weekend. Over 5,000 flights were canceled worldwide following the global IT outage, which also caused major delays, and queues continue to grow at some airports.
In India, numerous flights were either delayed or canceled. Several airlines had to resort to manual check-in and boarding processes at the airports and requested passengers to reach airports early. Flight operations at Indira Gandhi International Airport were also affected due to the issue. Delhi Airport stated in a social media post that it is closely working with all its stakeholders to minimize the inconvenience to the flyers.
Flight operations of about 30 services of various airlines were also disrupted at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad due to the global outage. As of last evening, 36 flights flying in and out of RGIA were canceled, including departures and arrivals. The affected routes include Bangalore, Tirupati, Visakhapatnam, Cochin, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Raipur, and Jaipur. Many passengers have been enduring long queues, unable to check in their bags or receive boarding passes.
Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, stated yesterday that the government is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage, which is actively working with impacted entities.
In a social media post, Mr. Vaishnaw said the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is coordinating with Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) of critical infrastructure entities. He added that all impacted entities are working to bring up their systems and, in many cases, systems are partially up.
Meanwhile, the Indian financial and payments systems remained largely unaffected by the Microsoft services outage. The Reserve Bank of India stated that it has made an assessment of the impact of the outage on its regulated entities, showing that only 10 banks and NBFCs had minor disruptions, which have either been resolved or are being resolved.
Overall, the Indian financial sector within the Reserve Bank’s domain remains insulated from the global outage. The RBI noted that critical systems of most banks are not in the cloud and only a few banks are using the CrowdStrike tool.
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) chief executive Dilip Asbe stated that the country’s payments architecture, including the widely popular Unified Payments Interface, has been unaffected. The RBI has issued an advisory to all of its regulated entities for taking necessary steps to remain alert and ensure operational resilience and continuity.
Worldwide, many businesses are now dealing with backlogs and missed orders that could take days to resolve.
Health services across the globe, including in Britain, Israel, and Germany, also suffered problems, with some operations canceled.
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