Global cyber outage blamed on security software update

German automaker Mercedes-Benz acknowledged that it had suffered disruptions during the global outage.

The company's global production network was partially affected and is now returning to normal shift operations, a spokeswoman said in Stuttgart. 

Measures have been developed with the automaker's IT service provider and are already being implemented to fix the problems, she said. 

A faulty software update for an IT security system called Falcon Sensor, made by CrowdStrike, led to widespread disruptions around the world. 

Transportation system issues appeared to be improving and would hopefully be back to normal by Saturday,  US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an interview with CNBC. 

He said that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) appeared to be unaffected by the disruption.

"We have no indication of an impact on FAA's operational systems, such as air traffic control, or most systems within the U.S. Department of Transportation," Buttigieg said.

He said they have reminded airlines of their obligations and responsibilities to passengers during the outage.

The share price for CrowdStrike — the company whose content update has been blamed for the global tech outage — fell by around 12% in premarket trading on Friday.

The cybersecurity firm provides security software for cloud computing, such as Microsoft's Azure platform. The company's CEO said that a "content upgrade" was responsible for the global outage on Microsoft systems.

CrowdStrike's "Falcon Sensor" software was triggering crashes on platforms using Microsoft Windows.

Microsoft also saw its shares fall slightly early on Friday, by 1.4%.

George Kurtz, the CEO of CrowdStrike, the company behind the faulty "content upgrade" that has been blamed for the global tech outages and disruptions, has apologized for the incident in an interview with US broadcaster NBC.

He said the company was "deeply sorry for the impact that we've caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this."

While the issue has been identified and fixes have been deployed, "It could be some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover," Kurtz said.

"Many of the customers are rebooting the system and it's coming up and it'll be operational," the CEO added.

Eurowings, the budget airline subsidiary of Germany's Lufthansa, said its domestic flights in Germany, as well as flights to and from the UK, were suspended until at least 3 p.m. (1300 GMT).

"Delays and flight cancellations are to be expected throughout the day," the company said in a statement, adding that passengers booked for domestic flights could take trains and then request reimbursement.

More than 50 flights were expected to be impacted by the delays and cancellations, brought on by the global IT outage.

A German supermarket chain, Tegut, had to close more than 300 stores after the global tech disruptions brought operations to a halt.

A spokesperson for the company said that checkout systems were not working leading the company to close all its stores on Friday morning as a precaution.

"We're working hard on a solution to the problems," Tegut said in a statement. "Currently we cannot say when the disruption will be fully resolved."

The major US carrier American Airlines said that it was resuming its flights after the global IT outage grounded all of its planes.

"Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American," the company said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

"As of 5:00 a.m. ET (0900 GMT), we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience," it added.

Numerous airports and airlines around the world were affected by Friday's disruptions, with numerous flights delayed or canceled.

Trade in the Russian currency seemed to have suffered few if any impacts from the IT outages on Friday, with a ministry saying the unimpeded operations showed that the country's import substitution in software development had been a success. 

According to Reuters news ageny, currency traders said their software and operating systems were functioning as usual, while the largest lender, Sberbank, also said it had no problems.  

One currency trader told Reuters: "Everyone has long been preparing for the possibility of Microsoft being cut off due to sanctions. The current incident is a test of how well we have prepared. So far, everything is fine."

Russia's Digital Development Ministry said in a statement that the global outage had shown that Moscow's strategy of promoting domestic alternatives to software from foreign companies such as Microsoft were working.

Microsoft began ceasing the provision of cloud services to Russian organizations earlier this year in line with EU sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

George Kurtz, the CEO of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said IT disruptions around the world were not a result of a security incident or cyberattack. 

The company "is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts," Kurtz said on X, formerly Twitter.  

"This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," he added. 

The tech outage was caused by a "defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts," Kurtz said.

CrowdStrike's shares were down 20% in pre-market trading on Wall Street on Friday.

Microsoft's cloud computing platform Azure is believed to be the source of the global tech disruptions that have impacted airlines, media outlets and financial institutions.

The company said it was aware of the specific problem in a statement, several hours after the first reports of outages.

"We have been made aware of an issue impacting Virtual Machines running Windows, running the CrowdStrike Falcon agent, which may encounter a bug check (BSOD) and get stuck in a restarting state," it said.

It added that it was "currently investigating potential options Azure customers can take for mitigation."

Cybersecurity agencies in the UK and France have both said the global IT outage on Friday was in all probability not caused by a cyberattack.

A UK government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said British cybersecurity experts were not treating it as a malicious act.

The French cyber agency also said there is "no evidence" that the outage was caused by cyber criminality.

"The teams are fully mobilized to identify and support the affected entities in France and to understand ... the origin of this outage," the national cybersecurity agency (ANSSI) said, adding "There is no evidence to suggest that this outage is the result of a cyberattack."

US tech giant Microsoft has said it is taking "mitigation actions" to resolve problems with its services.

The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) said that major US airlines, including Delta, United and American Airlines, had grounded all of their flights amid the IT outage.

"All... flights regardless of destination" were grounded due to the "communication issues," the FAA said in a notice to airlines.

The widespread disruption is taking place during the nighttime in the US, potentially limiting the fallout of the tech disruptions.

The Paris Olympics' organizing committee said its IT operations have been affected by the global cyber outage, with just one week to go before the Games begin in the French capital on July 26.  

"We have activated contingency plans in order to continue operations," the committee said in a statement, without immediately giving details on the problems it was experiencing.

Spain's Aena, the world's largest airport operator based on passanger numbers, said it was recovering some of its systems after being hit by the global tech outage.

"All airports are operative, but some processes are working with delays," it said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

An earlier statement by the company said that the disruptions were mostly affecting check-in and passenger information points.

The Spanish state owns 51% of Aena which runs more than 60 airports, 46 of which are in Spain. It is the largest global operator in terms of passengers served, in large part due to the number of tourists visiting Spain every year.

Berlin airport has halted all flights until 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) due to a technical fault, a spokesperson told Reuters news agency on Friday.

The airport operator BER had earlier said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that check-ins were delayed due to the error.

Germany's flagship airline Lufthansa also said it was experiencing problems with bookings.

"Currently, the profile and booking retrieval functionality may be limited. We are working on a solution and apologize for any inconvenience caused," the company said in a statement on its website.

Amsterdam Schipol Airport in the Netherlands has also said it is affected by a cyber outage, telling travelers wanting to travel on Friday to contact their airline.

Dutch airline KLM announced that it had suspended a large part of its operations due to the IT outage.

"KLM, like other airlines and airports, has also been affected by the global computer outage, making it impossible to handle flights," the company said. "For now, we are forced to suspend most of the operation."

Belgian media said baggage check-in at Brussels airport was affected as well.