ROAD TO RECOVERY
America claws its way back from world’s ‘worst ever’ tech outage that saw Times Square go dark & work halt for millions
The outage left millions unable to call 911
THE US is finally clawing back after millions were affected by the "worst-ever" global technology outage on Friday that saw Times Square's famous colorful display reduced to eerie black screens.
Daily life ground to a halt for people all over the world after back-to-back issues caused a global technology outage with hospitals, businesses, and even travel thrown into chaos.
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The iconic billboards in Times Square went dark, along with millions of workers' computers, as the global crisis exposed the internet's vulnerable infrastructure.
However, it's expected that transportation should make a recovery by Saturday, according to , after over 2,400 flights were previously canceled due to the outage.
Delta and United Airlines some of their flights on Friday and it's expected that more airlines will join in rescheduling their halted flights.
The worldwide meltdown, triggered by a failed overnight update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrikes to Microsoft Windows, canceled flights that were set to take off Friday morning - and it could cause even more chaos for weeks.
In what has been branded the "largest IT outage in history," major railway and supermarket services across the globe have also been pummeled by the tech glitch.
American Airlines, United, and Delta requested a global ground stop on all flights in the early hours of the morning, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Over 7,000 flights have faced delays and more than 2,400 flights have been canceled in the US as of 9 am ET, according to .
Television channels, banks, hospitals, and supermarkets around the world are also facing major issues following the chaos.
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The sweeping disruption prompted one expert to issue an eerie warning.
“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.
“This is historic,” Mikko Hypponen, the chief research officer at cybersecutity company WithSecure, told the .
“We haven’t had an incident like this.”
What we know so far:
- More than 7,000 flight delays have been reported across the U.S.
- Over 2,300 flights have been canceled
- American Airlines, Delta, and United are among major companies that have been affected
- 911 services and hospitals have also been hit by the issue
- CrowdStrike said the outage was not a cyberattack
- Microsoft has confirmed the underlying issue has been fixed but some services could still be affected
- Major shipping terminals have delayed opening
- New York City and Washington D.C. transport systems were impacted
- Blue "recovery" displays have appeared on screens across the country, from airport terminals to major store billboards
The estimated global cost of internet disruption for 20 hours is a massive $24 billion - but some experts predict the total cost could run into the trillions as it might take weeks for systems to be restored.
"The fix will have to be applied to many computers around the world," said industry expert Adam Smith of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.
"So if computers are getting blue screens and endless loops it could be more difficult and take days and weeks."
Outage could take 'weeks' to resolve
Tech experts have told The U.S. Sun that even though an official fix has been released for the Microsoft outage, problems related to the blackout will continue to last.
Al Lakhani, CEO of security firm IDEE, said that the issues could persist for weeks.
“The fallout from incidents like these can be extensive and prolonged," Lakhani said.
"In terms of restoring every affected computer to full operation, the recovery could span hours, days, or even weeks.
"This is because it is a supply chain attack. These are particularly damaging because a single compromised software update can impact thousands of organizations globally.
"Leading to severe consequences including service disruptions, theft of intellectual property, and threats to national security.”
Another security expert Adam Pilton told The U.S. Sun that it will take days for bigger businesses to recover.
"Depending upon the size of the organization will determine the recovery time," said Adam, senior cybersecurity expert at Cybersmart, speaking to The U.S. Sun.
"CrowdStrike has released a fix and provided guidance which is working for many users.
"For smaller organizations, this will take hours, for larger organizations this may take days to resolve."
Martin Jartelius, chief security officer at Outpost24, told The U.S. Sun that some affected computers might have to be manually repaired.
"For those impacted, if their systems did not get the erroneous update then that is a positive," Jartelius said.
"If they did get the update, some seem to be able to get up and running and they will fix themselves.
"Others will currently have a workaround to get the good update and have some hands-on support, including boot into safe mode and removing some files, expect this to be done swiftly for any systems that need a high availability.
"But expect the cleanup in IT-departments to potentially drag out over the vacation period.
"So, where it really matters, this should not be too hard to fix, but it will cost time and effort."
CrowdStrike has issued a fix for the update as CEO George Kurtz the incident "is not a security incident or cyberattack."
Despite reassurance from Microsoft and CrowdStrike, security pro Al Lakhani told The U.S. Sun that the problems could continue for weeks.
“The fallout from incidents like these can be extensive and prolonged," said Lakhani, the CEO of security firm IDEE.
"In terms of restoring every affected computer to full operation, the recovery could span hours, days, or even weeks."
Incredible timelapse vid shows plane traffic grind to a HALT after ‘biggest IT outage in history’ grounds flights
Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt added that the cyber outage could be the “largest IT outage in history."
“I don’t think it’s too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history,” Hunt said in a post on X on Friday.
“This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time.”
The tech meltdown is affecting more than flights as millions of computers are left blank with the "screen of death" - including iconic billboards in Times Square in New York City.
The impacted screens were subsequently turned off, switching from blue to black.
New York City's MTA customer information system has also been affected as MTA systems are "temporarily offline due to a worldwide technical outage."
Drivers are also warned about the outage as they might not be able to pay their parking tickets or fines.
Jennifer Lewke, a reporter for NBC affiliate WHEC, shared that New Yorkers in Rochester were having issues navigating the city's website for managing tickets.
"The City’s parking, traffic violations, and building/zoning offices are impacted by the outage, so they are closed today," she on X.
This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time
Troy Hunt
Other drivers were left stranded at gas stations when the outage killed card readers at pumps - meaning cars couldn't fill up to continue on the road.
The outage has affected 911 call centers as emergency services are down across Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Ohio because workers can't access their computers.
is also reporting a growing number of outages with banks and payment services including Visa, Bank of America, Charles Schwab, TD Bank, and Chase while the outage persists.
Some businesses are asking customers to use cash as debit and credit cards won't work while systems are offline due to the outage.
Customers at Chase Bank are reporting that their direct deposits aren't going through amid the chaos.
A convenience store in Greenville, South Carolina, has a sign on the door saying "Cash only. Debit and credit is down company wide," according to local NBC affiliate
Hospitals are also affected in the chaos as reported Mass General Brigham in Boston canceled all elective surgeries due to the outage.
EXPERT WARNING
Cybersecurity experts have warned people and companies that "we must learn" to avoid another incident like this, The U.S. Sun has previously reported.
Although CrowdStrike's CEO conformed this incident was not a tech threat, specialists have warned hackers could potentially shut down systems across the global in a replicated attack.
Martin Jartelius, Chief Security Officer at Outpost24, exclusively spoke to The U.S. Sun.
"This is similar to a supply chain attack," Jartelius said.
What is CrowdStrike?
THE global cyber outage affecting TV channels, banks, hospitals, airports and emergency services appears to relate to an issue at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
IT security firm CrowdStrike ran a recorded phone message on Friday - saying it was aware of reports of crashes on Microsoft's Windows operating system relating to its Falcon sensor.
A prerecorded message said: "Thanks for contacting CrowdStrike support. CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows... related to the Falcon sensor."
CrowdStrike, headquartered in Austin, Texas, says it is a global security leader which provides an advanced platform to protect data.
A CrowdStrike update on Friday is said to have caused a critical error in Microsoft operating systems, affecting millions worldwide.
The company regularly updates systems with new anti-virus software.
Cyber expert Troy Hunt told Australian TV network Seven: “It looks like they've pushed a bad update, which is presently nuking every machine that takes it.”
"If an attacker had backdoored such an update to open systems to attacks or to encrypt them, the exact same systems would have been impacted.
"This is why supply chain attacks and defense has been increasingly important."
Internet users should also be on the lookout as criminals are expected to take advantage of the outage to target new victims.
Security experts told The U.S. Sun that businesses hit by the outage and regular people whose machines were totally fine will both be targeted by scammers.
PASSENGER PANDEMONIUM
This was not been the only major travel disruption top hit flyers this week.
Frontier, Allegiant Air, and SunCountry, all suffered from a significant Microsoft outage.
These airlines had grounded all of their flights for several hours on Wednesday, as the stop was lifted later that night.
“Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies,” Frontier said in a statement on its website.
“We appreciate your patience.”
This comes a year after the FAA forced all domestic flights to stay on the tarmac, which caused more than 4,000 delays, The U.S. previously reported.
Read More on The Sun
This system failure had caused the biggest travel disruption in the U.S. since 9/11.
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