Almost every corner of the global transport sector has been hit by a major IT failure, thought to have originated from a miscoded security software update.
Airports, airlines, train operating companies and ports are among the infrastructure and systems affected.
While some airports and airlines continued to work with basic systems – some even relied on pens and paper – others have said they cannot operate flights until the issue is solved.
Microsoft said it is working on “mitigation” of the outage. Although Microsoft does not appear to be directly responsible for the problems, the CrowdStrike software that has broken is often used as a security “plug-in” on computers using Microsoft’s operating systems.
Outside of transport, many sectors of the global connected economy have been affected, including healthcare, payment systems affecting supermarkets, and broadcasters unable to use some systems or even get to Air.
Aviation hit hardest
Many of the IT systems that stopped working at approximately 1am CET were related to passenger information and ticketing services.
Pictures quickly spread of departure boards showing the so-called “blue screen of death” which indicates a critical issue with the software used.
Check-in systems have been downed, meaning some airports have resorted to handwritten boarding passes and luggage tags.
But others have said the issues pose a safety risk and have suspended flights. Three of the world’s largest airlines, United, American and KLM have grounded all flights until a solution is found.
In India, major disruption has been reported at Delhi International Airport. Images shared on social media showed whiteboards and markers used instead of digital departure and arrivals boards.
A number of Asian airlines have reported check-in problems, including SpiceJet, IndiGo, Air India and its sister airline Air India Express.
In Japan, JetStar, Jeju Air, Qantas, HK Express and Spring Japan have all faced issues at Tokyo’s Narita hub.
Australian and New Zealand airports including Melbourne and Christchurch said they were affected, but despite delays flights were operating at the time of writing.
Major European air hubs including Schiphol in Amsterdam and London’s Gatwick have cited continuing problems, leading to a “major impact on flights”.
Ryanair has stated: “We’re currently experiencing disruption across the network due to a global 3rd party IT outage, which is entirely out of our control. Booking and check-in are currently unavailable. If you are due to travel today (19 July) and have yet to check-in for your flight, you can do so at the airport.”
Passengers flying on Wizz Air have also reported delays and long queues, but the company has not made a statement.
Aviation analysts Cirium said at least 1,000 flights have been cancelled globally. That number is likely to rise throughout the day, with no quick fix in sight.
Rail ticket problems
The UK’s national rail provider Network Rail said a number of train operating companies have been affected.
Avanti West Coast, c2c, Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, London Northwestern Railway, Lumo, Merseyrail, Northern, Southern, Thameslink, Transport for Wales, TransPennine Express, West Midlands Railway are listed on the company’s website.
The issue appears to be mainly ticket machines at stations, with some customers instructed to buy tickets onboard the trains.
Transport for London is not affected at this point.
In Belgium, a similar issue has struck national train operator SNCB. Spokesperson Bart Crol told local media the outage has had “no impact on train traffic.” Although passengers have reported being unable to buy tickets online, Crol said they should make their way to train stations to buy tickets and listen for the latest announcements.
Ports and shipping surviving
Meanwhile, the shipping industry appears to have escaped the worst of the trouble (perhaps because bills of lading and other key information points are not often digitised in the maritime sector).
But the Baltic Hub port in Gdansk, Poland, has been affected. A statement released by port management explained: “At Baltic Hub we are struggling with a global outage of Microsoft operating systems, which impedes the functioning of the terminal. We are working to resolve the issue. We will inform you immediately as soon as the outage is removed. Please do not come to the Terminal.”
A pop-up message on the terminal’s website from the shift supervisor Radoslaw Cieslik said the rail and road access was closed until further notice.
Passenger ferry services have been affected by the Crowdstrike outage’s impact on payment systems while at sea. P&O Ferries has told customers it can only accept cash payments onboard its ships.
The recovery has already begun, according to Crowdstrike’s CEO George Kurtz.
“Crowdstrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” he insisted.
“Our team is fully mobilised to ensure the security and stability of Crowdstrike customers.”
But internet infrastructure security specialist Tom Kidwell said this would not stop future full-system issues, or restore public confidence in the mass usage cloud systems.
“Incidents like this highlight the vulnerability in using a single supplier on such a vast scale, and why it’s critical that organisations have a backup plan. Best practice for vendors is to pressure test any updates before rollout, however this can be difficult when you serve 60-90% of the world,” Kidwell said.
The issue was caused by a faulty update, which will need to be fixed centrally before systems can be restarted.
“Due to the nature of the update, an individual from every organisation will need to boot into safemode, remove the issue file/driver, and then either roll back or update to a new version, something CrowdStrike will need to release very quickly,” he explained.
