Tuesday, 19 November 2024

Worldwide Cyber Outage Causes IT Chaos, Thousands Of Flights Grounded

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A software update glitch impacting cybersecurity company CrowdStrike has caused information technology havoc across multiple industries.

International airlines, banks, media outlets, and medical facilities are among the industries affected by the software update gone wrong.

CrowdStrike said it was “not a security incident or cyberattack.”

WATCH:

The IT outage left travelers stranded at airports worldwide, with flight cancellations across the United States topping 1,700 on Friday.

From the Associated Press:

Long lines formed at airports in the U.S., Europe and Asia as airlines lost access to check-in and booking services at a time when many travelers are heading away on summer vacations. Hospitals and doctors’ offices had problems with their appointment systems, and cancelled non-urgent surgeries. Several TV stations in the U.S. were also prevented from airing local news early Friday.

Saskia Oettinghaus, a member of the German Olympic diving team, was among those stuck at the Berlin Airport.

“We are on our way to Paris for the Olympic Games and now we are at a standstill here for the time being,” Oettinghaus said.

Other athletes and spectators traveling to Paris were delayed, as were their uniforms and accreditations, but Games organizers said disruptions were limited and didn’t affect ticketing or the torch relay.

“This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core internet infrastructure,” said Ciaran Martin, a professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and former Head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre.

Cyber expert James Bore said real harm would be caused by the outage because systems people have come to rely on at critical times are not going to be available. Hospitals, for example, will struggle to sort out appointments and those who need care may not get it — and it will lead to deaths, he said.

“Major Microsoft cyber outage grounds airplanes and shuts down banks, supermarkets, trains, and TV channels across the world. US cyber security company CrowdStrike has admitted to being responsible for the outage error and said they are ‘working on it,'” Oli London writes.

“Experts believe the issue could have been caused by a ‘buggy’ security update but say it is too early to ‘rule out’ a cyberattack. Thousands of businesses who use Microsoft operating systems have been affected across the world,” he added.

WATCH:

Per NBC News:

The Paris Olympics organizing committee told Reuters that while the outage was slowing its operations, its ticket sales remained unaffected. Elsewhere in the world of sports, British soccer team Manchester United delayed a ticket release scheduled for Friday, blaming problems with Microsoft.

That was just one of many businesses affected across the United Kingdom, with train operators blaming IT outages for cancellations Friday morning and the London Stock Exchange saying that a “3rd party global technical issue” for stopping its regulatory news service posting any new items.

The country’s National Health Service posted on X that “the NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with a [general practitioner] appointment and patient record system.” The statement added that the health system’s emergency phone service was still operating.

In Israel, too, at least 15 major hospitals have been affected, according to local media. However, most medical centers have now either returned to normal operations or reverted to manual operations. The emergency line of the country’s ambulance service is also affected.

At 2:20 a.m. (ET), Alaska State Troopers said that 911 and non-emergency phone numbers across the state were not working “due to a nationwide technology-related o kouts and countless websites.

The glitch has affected news outlets, too, including NBC News. Sky News, NBC News’ British partner broadcaster, was temporarily unable to air live news. Broadcasters in Australia also reported problems.

As a reminder, the World Economic Forum has warned about the devastating impact of a worldwide cyberattack.

Klaus Schwab said COVID-19 would be a minor disturbance compared to a cyberattack.

WATCH:

The ‘Cyber Polygon’ training exercise has simulated a global outage.

CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity company responsible for the outage, is a former ‘Technology Pioneer’ of the World Economic Forum.

The next Cyber Polygon training event takes place Sept 10-11, 2024.

Per CrowdStrike in 2015:

CrowdStrike Inc., provider of the first true Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based next-generation endpoint protection platform, today announced that it has been recognized as a Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum (WEF). CrowdStrike has been honored as one of the world’s most innovative companies for pioneering groundbreaking technology in the cybersecurity industry and for driving visionary leadership and long-standing market value.

CrowdStrike has dramatically advanced organizations’ ability to fight off persistent and sophisticated cyber threats by enabling them to detect, prevent and respond to attacks, at any stage – even malware-free intrusions. The company’s next-generation endpoint protection platform, CrowdStrike Falcon®™, identifies and thwarts nation-state and organized criminal adversaries, saving its customers millions of dollars in potential damage and preventing the theft of valuable assets and personally identifiable information (PII).

“Being the first endpoint protection company recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer is an incredible honor and a true testament to the innovation and impact of our CrowdStrike Falcon®™ platform and our record-breaking customer acquisition and corporate growth,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and chief technology officer of CrowdStrike. “Every day, we detect, prevent, and thwart cyber attacks across some of the largest and most targeted organizations worldwide, protecting intellectual property, guarding innovation, economic growth, and fair business practices.”

“We’re glad to see CrowdStrike make it to the selection,” said Fulvia Montresor, head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. “CrowdStrike is part of a group of entrepreneurs who are more aware of the crucial challenges of the world around them, and who are determined to do their part to solve those challenges with their company.”

The Technology Pioneers were selected from among hundreds of applicants by a selection committee of 68 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate executives. The committee based its decisions on criteria including innovation, potential impact, working prototype, viability and leadership.

WATCH:

From Cyber Polygon:

The next Cyber Polygon online training is set to take place on September 10–11, with registrations for participants opening in June.

The training will run in conjunction with where we will host a Cyber Polygon booth. In parallel, BI.ZONE experts will take part in panel discussions and other activities. MENA ISC 2024 is one of the world’s leading cybersecurity conferences to be held in Saudi Arabia. The conference will bring together cybersecurity experts and vendors from different countries on one platform.

This year, the training is dedicated to the investigation of a sophisticated targeted attack on an organization. The teams will investigate a potential infrastructure compromise and data leaks using classical forensics and threat hunting techniques. Organizations will join the exercise from around the world, and visitors to MENA ISC will be able to track the progress in real time at the Cyber Polygon booth.

The training is being implemented on BI.ZONE Cyber Polygon Platform designed for mastering and assessing cyber defense skills. Meanwhile, visitors at the event will be able to test themselves through individual exercises. BI.ZONE Cyber Polygon Platform offers tasks based on real cyber incidents.

Our experts will conduct workshops and join panel discussions on strategic cybersecurity issues.

Cyber Polygon is the international initiative of BI.ZONE aimed at raising global cyber resilience. In 2021, more than 200 teams from 48 countries participated in the training. The event was keynoted by Mikhail Mishustin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; Herman Gref, CEO, Chairman of the Executive Board, Sber; Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum; Steve Wozniak, Co-founder, Apple Computer, and other participants.

 


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