The ‘most serious IT outage the world has ever seen’ sparked global chaos today – with planes and trains halted, the NHS disrupted, shops closed, football teams unable to sell tickets and banks and TV channels knocked offline.
Officials have held an emergency COBRA meeting after a devastating technical fault caused Microsoft’s Windows software to suddenly shut down, prompting departure boards to immediately turn off at airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Edinburgh on the busiest day for British airports since Covid.
NHS England said patients should not attend GP appointments unless informed otherwise due to problems with the system used to schedule appointments, while train passengers have been told to expect delays due to ‘widespread IT issues across the entire network’.
With more than a thousand flights cancelled globally, passengers were seen sleeping in passageways at Los Angeles International Airport, huge queues formed at terminals across Spain, and in Delhi staff set up a makeshift whiteboard to record departures.
Shops in shut down or went cashless after digital checkouts stopped working, while in the US emergency services lines went down in Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Ohio.
Cyber security company CrowdStrike has admitted to being responsible for the error that hit Microsoft 365 apps and operating systems and said a ‘fix has been deployed’. The American firm said it was caused by a ‘defect found in a single content update’ and insisted the issue ‘was not a security incident or cyberattack’.
Windows is the most used operating system in the world, meaning the outage is affecting almost every part of the global economy – with supermarkets and cafes, including Morrisons, Waitrose, B&Q and the bakery chain Gail’s, previously unable to accept some card payments. There have even been warnings workers may see a delay to their paychecks.
Technology experts have said the disruption is at the scale expected from Y2K or the ‘Millennium Bug’, a computer programming shortcut that was forecast to cause chaos as the year changed from 1999 to 2000 but never materialised.
‘I don’t think it’s too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history,’ said Troy Hunt, a respected security consultant, in a social media post. ‘This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time.’
TV channels including Sky News and CBBC spent time off air this morning, and football clubs including Manchester United told fans they will have to delay the release of match tickets. Meanwhile, the Mercedes F1 team said it was working to fix any issues ahead of practice sessions for the Hungarian GP.
As engineers frantically battle to restore services and share prices dropped following what Elon Musk called ‘the biggest IT fail ever’ –
The Cobra system that deals with matters of national emergency or major disruption has been fired up to manage the UK Government’s response, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said this morning.
Ministers are in touch with their sectors to tackle the fallout from the IT failures, with Transport Secretary Louise Haigh saying she is working ‘at pace with industry’ after trains and flights ground to a halt.
Mr McFadden, who is in charge of the Whitehall machine, said: ‘Many people are being affected by today’s IT outages impacting services across the country and globally.
‘Ministers are working with their sectors and respective industries on the issue. I am in close contact with teams co-ordinating our response through the COBR response system.’
An emergency Cobra meeting was held at official-level – rather than ministers – on Friday morning to discuss the IT chaos, Downing Street said.
A No 10 spokeswoman told reporters: ‘We recognise the impact this is having on services and the Government is working closely with the respective sectors and industries on this issue, which is affecting services not only across the UK but also globally.
‘Officials have met in the Cobra unit this morning and of course are updating ministers regularly on this issue.’
She said she was not aware of plans for a Cobra gathering with ministers present.
Asked why Sir Keir Starmer did not chair the meeting of the committee, she said: ‘The Prime Minister’s had bilaterals with President Zelensky and Cabinet this morning, but all ministers including the Prime Minister are being kept informed with the latest.’
Royal Surrey Hospital today said it had seen issues with Varian, the IT system the hospital uses to deliver radiotherapy treatments.
Earlier the hospital was unable to deliver scheduled radiotherapy treatments, but this afternoon’s appointments will take place as scheduled, the trust said in an update.
Appointments into next week could still be affected due to remaining disruption to the system, the statement added.
By Kevin Airs
The rogue app that brought down computers across the world is ironically aimed at protecting PCs from hackers.
Crowdstrike is a security service designed to stop internet breaches for the globe’s biggest companies, but is now responsible for perhaps the biggest IT outage we have ever seen.
Computer analysts believe a badly-written bit of code in the update triggered the catastrophe and wrecked computer networks worldwide.
Crowdstrike has confirmed a faulty update was responsible for sparking the chaos.
It said in a statement this morning: ‘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.
‘We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.
‘We further recommend organisations ensure they’re communicating with Crowdstrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilised to ensure the security and stability of Crowdstrike customers.’
Dr Mark Gregory, associate professor at RMIT University’s School of Engineering, said he believed an update to one of CrowdStrike’s software products, called Falcon, is ‘bricking’ computers running Windows, making them inoperable.
Cyber expert Troy Hunt told Seven News the catastrophic crisis was not affecting all Microsoft Windows computers, but many of them.
GPs have also been hit, with surgeries in Cumbria, Cheshire, Yorkshire and the West Midlands taking to social media to say their systems had been affected.
The issue has hit the EMIS system, which allows doctors to book appointments, view patient notes, order prescriptions and make referrals.
Speaking to , a practice manager of a GP practice in Berkshire said: ‘We are completely dead in the water.
‘We can’t see any patients are systems are down. It’s not clinically safe to treat patients because we can’t see their notes.
‘Can’t give out prescriptions and even if we do hand write them the problem is also affecting the pharmacies. It’s affecting the whole area and hospitals are in an even worse situation.’
Hospitals have also been affected, with Salisbury District Hospital saying it was experiencing delays.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said any form of IT outage ‘is a serious concern’ and urged patients to ‘bear with’ GPs until the issue is resolved.
The LSE Group, which operates the London stock exchange, said it was experiencing a global technical issue preventing news from being published.
Major European stock market indexes are down today, with airlines, train companies, banks, tech firms and media businesses all suffering falls.
CrowdStrike tanked by 20% in pre-market trading while Microsoft fell 1.9%.
Schoolcomms – a parent communication app that is used by thousands of schools – is also reporting ‘issues’.
Meanwhile, some companies have been unable to access their payroll software, raising fears some salary payments may be delayed.
Melanie Pizzey, CEO and Founder of the Global Payroll Association, said: ‘We’ve been contacted by numerous clients already today who have been unable to access their payroll software due to the Microsoft outage and others who have been urged to log out with immediate effect.
‘Depending on the length of this outage, it could have very serious implications for businesses across the nation, particularly those who process payroll on a weekly basis.
‘Furthermore, we could see a backlog with regard to processing payrolls for the coming month end which may delay employees from receiving their monthly wage.’
Microsoft 365 say they are investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access apps and services.
‘Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions,’ they said on X this morning.
‘We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue.’
CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz said the company would ‘make sure that every customer is fully recovered’ from the ongoing global IT outage.
Speaking to NBC’s Today Show, Mr Kurtz said many firms were rebooting their computers and coming back online, but said it could still be ‘some time’ before all systems had completely recovered.
‘We’ve been on with our customers all night and working with them – many of our customers are rebooting the system and it’s coming up and operational because we fixed it on our end,’ he said.
‘Some of the systems that aren’t recovering, we’re working with them, so it could be some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover, but it is our mission to make sure that every customer is fully recovered and we’re not going to relent until we get every customer back to where they were and we’ll continue to protect them and keep the bad guys out of their systems.’
Asked if he ever thought an outage of this scale was possible, the CrowdStrike founder said: ‘Software is a very complex world and there’s a lot of interactions, and always staying ahead of the adversary is a tall task.’
Research firm Cirium found today was set to be the busiest day for UK flight departures since October 2019 – before Covid – with more than 3,214 planned.
Today was due to be the busiest day for UK flight departures since October 2019 – before Covid – with more than 3,214 planned, according to research firm Cirium.
It said 52 flights departing the UK and 51 coming into the UK had been cancelled as of midday. More than 1,300 were cancelled globally.
Among the impacted firms are Ryanair, with the airline posting to its website: ‘Potential disruptions across the network (Fri 19 July) due to a global third party system outage.
‘Affected passengers will be notified and any passengers travelling across the network on Fri 19 July should check their Ryanair app for the latest updates on their flight.
‘We advise passengers to arrive at the airport three hours in advance of their flight to avoid any disruptions.
‘We regret any inconvenience caused to passengers by this third party IT issue, which is outside of Ryanair’s control and affects all airlines operating across the network.’
Edinburgh Airport said the IT outage is causing longer waiting times.
Stansted Airport said that some airline check-in services are being done manually as a result of the IT outage, but ‘flights are still operating as normal’.
Meanwhile, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) – parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern – warned passengers to expect delays because of the issue.
Later this morning, industry body the Rail Delivery Group said ‘most trains are still running across the country’ and told passengers to check National Rail Enquiries website for the latest updates.
The firm posted on social media: ‘We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network. Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem.
‘We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks.
‘Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected. We will provide additional updates when we can. In the meantime, please regularly check your journey before you travel.’
South Western Railway said all its ticket vending machines had stopped working due to IT issues.
It advised passengers to ‘purchase your ticket online, on the train or speak to a member of station staff’.
A checkout worker in a Little Waitrose at Kings Cross Station told customers: ‘It is cash only at the moment. The card machines are not working.’
A queue of thirty people was seen snaking around the supermarket.
One shopper said: ‘There is a massive IT issue and all the self checkouts are not working. It is cash only.’
The major disruption could prompt a rethink on whether the most resilient operating systems are being used and whether it is ‘lazy’ to stick with what we know, according to cybersecurity expert Dr Harjinder Lallie.
The associate professor at the University of Warwick described the situation as an IT ‘catastrophe’.
He said: ‘The worldwide IT outage experienced this morning is unprecedented in the range and scale of systems it has impacted.’
He added: ‘This IT ‘catastrophe’ highlights the need for greater resilience, a greater focus on back-up systems, and possibly even a need to rethink whether we are using the most resilient operating systems for such critical systems.’
Dr Lallie said: ‘We have here a particular combination of tools – an operating system and a tool at the other end and once you put those combinations together you suddenly find that it’s impacting a lot of systems. There is an over-reliance on a) Microsoft b) in this case CrowdStrike at the other end.
‘Somewhere between the two there’s been a problem which has caused what is an absolutely unprecedented global outage.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this before. We had the NHS, WannaCry (ransomware attack), that was serious. But this is planes, TV stations, it’s such a massive impact.’
He said the issue has demonstrated how exposed companies and services can be.
He said: ‘We didn’t know how exposed we were until this happened. Now it’s happened we’re tracing it back and realising ‘crikey, how much reliance we have on these two systems’.’
He suggested there could be more diversity in use of different operating systems.
He said: ‘Windows is brilliant, Microsoft is brilliant but there are other operating systems that we could be using in certain mission-critical systems and companies need to think very carefully about, in this particular scenario, is Microsoft the best option or should we actually take the plunge and go with another operating system?
‘I don’t know if those conversations are being had or if we are, excuse the term, being lazy and just sticking with Microsoft because we know Microsoft really well.’
Asked why this might be, he said the ‘massive’ cost of training staff on new systems could be a consideration.
Professor Ciaran Martin, who was the founding chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said early indications appeared to suggest an update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike ‘seems to have been misconfigured in such a way that it wrecks (Microsoft) Windows’.
He told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme: ‘So if a company is using both CrowdStrike and Windows for its operating system, it seems that they get what people in the trade call the ‘blue screen of death’, and Windows doesn’t work.
‘And that’s why airlines aren’t able to process, presumably why Sky hasn’t been able to broadcast. It’s also why just simply for timezone reasons it seems to be emerging first in .’
He said companies usually spend ‘a lot of time, money and effort’ making sure complex IT systems are compatible and can interact without something like this happening.
He said: ‘Most of the time that works. Occasionally, it doesn’t’, adding that it is ‘very rare to be as serious as this’.
Consumer group Which? advised airline passengers to avoid checking in luggage if possible.
One traveller at Gatwick Airport said he had been queuing for more than three-and-a-half hours ahead of a flight to Miami, Florida.
Dean Seddon, 42, from Plymouth, said: ‘There are just people everywhere, there must be 400 people in this queue for the check in desk I’m at… it’s just bedlam.
‘It’s one of those things where you kind of know we’re not going to fly, but you don’t want to leave because you don’t know.
‘(Staff are) doing the best they can but they don’t actually know when it’s going to be fixed, so it is frustrating, but you kind of feel for the staff as well.’
Mr Seddon said there had been some people getting ‘agitated’ in the queue but overall travellers had remained calm.
Rory Boland, editor of magazine Which? Travel, said passengers due to travel today ‘will naturally be deeply concerned’.
He went on: ‘If you can, avoid checking in a bag as queues for check-in at the airport will be long and IT failures typically lead to lots of lost bags.
‘If you do check-in bags, make sure you keep medication, keys and any other essentials in your hand luggage.
‘As these are extraordinary circumstances, compensation will not be payable for delayed or cancelled flights, but airlines nonetheless have a duty to look after you, including providing meals and accommodation if it becomes necessary.
‘They should also reroute you as quickly as possible, though given the global nature of the problem, this may not be immediately possible.’
UK air traffic control provider Nats said its systems are ‘operating normally’.
One group of American tourists were forced to pay £5,262 for new flights home from Edinburgh Airport after original plans were cancelled.
Stephanie Thomson, heading home to Dallas, Texas, said her family, who were in the UK to attend Wimbledon and the Open Championship in Troon, were unable to reach British Airlines or American Airlines for support.
Thousands of passengers suffered flight delays and cancellations on Friday due to the IT outage.
Here, we answer 10 key questions on assistance and compensation.
– What flights are covered by UK consumer law?
Flights operated by an airline departing from a UK airport, flights operated by a UK or EU airline arriving at a UK airport, or flights operated by a UK airline arriving at an EU airport.
– How long must a flight be delayed before I am entitled to assistance?
It depends on the distance of the flight.
For flights under 1,500km (932 miles) such as from Glasgow to Amsterdam: at least two hours.
For flights between 1,500km (932 miles) and 3,500km (2,175 miles) such as from Manchester to Marrakesh: at least three hours.
For flights over 3,500km (2,175 miles) such as from Heathrow to New York: at least four hours.
– What should this assistance include?
A reasonable amount of food and drink (often via vouchers), a means for you to communicate (often by refunding the cost of phone calls), and accommodation and transfers if an overnight stay is required.
– What happens in reality?
Airlines often fail to provide this assistance during major disruption due to being overwhelmed by requests and there being a shortage of available rooms in local hotels.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says in this scenario, passengers can organise their own assistance and claim the costs back from the airline by submitting receipts.
– Does that mean I should book a luxury hotel suite and order champagne?
Airlines are unlikely to reimburse you for that. The CAA advises passengers not to ‘spend more than is reasonable’.
– How long must assistance be provided?
Until your flight takes off or you accept a refund after deciding not to travel.
– What about getting to my destination?
If a flight is cancelled, airlines are required to issue a full refund or get you to your destination if you still want to travel.
Most will book you onto another of their flights, but you may be entitled to travel with another airline or by an alternative mode of transport if it will get you to your destination significantly sooner.
Passengers doing this are often required to purchase their own tickets and submit a claim to their original airline for reimbursement.
– What if I no longer want to travel?
You are entitled to a refund if you have been delayed by more than five hours.
– Am I entitled to compensation for a delayed flight?
Airlines are only liable for compensation if the reason for a delay is deemed within their control, such as a fault with the aircraft or pilot sickness.
That is not expected to be the case during the IT outage.
– What about if I miss a flight due to queues at security?
The CAA says it is ‘unlikely’ that an airline would consider itself obliged to offer a free alternative flight in this instance, but some do so voluntarily.
Speaking from Edinburgh Airport, she said: ‘It was supposed to leave at 9.25am and change in Heathrow at 11 and we were supposed to get into Dallas later today.
‘We couldn’t get an answer from anybody. British Airways kept hanging up saying we have too many calls right now. I was on hold with American (Airlines) for about an hour and 10 minutes before I finally hung up.
‘We just paid 6,800 dollars for a one-way trip home, hopefully leaving tonight. I didn’t know what else to do. I just wanted something to get us home.’
Another US tourist, Debbie, and her family, said their flight to Boston was also cancelled.
Staff at London Stansted Airport handed out bottles of water to people queuing on a hot July day.
Carol Murphy, 58, who was queuing inside the terminal building for a Ryanair flight to go on a 10-day holiday to Vienna, said the situation was ‘nobody’s fault’.
‘They keep coming round and people who’ve got a flight upcoming, they send them forward,’ said the charity worker, of Ealing, west London.
‘I think they’re doing quite well.’
Student Jack O’Leary, who was queuing for a Ryanair flight to Dublin to go on holiday, said: ‘We’re quite understanding – it’s a global outage and everything’s pretty chaotic.’
The 27-year-old, from near Cambridge, added: ‘We’re very much in stasis mode waiting for something to happen and hoping we can get to Dublin today.’
Tina, 47, an American TV and radio host who had been hoping to fly to Barcelona from Gatwick this morning, said: ‘We don’t know what to do, do we stay and hope we can fly to Spain at some point or get back on the Gatwick Express and head back to London?
‘We have four children with us and it’s not very fun standing around an airport for hours on end not knowing if we are even going to get to travel today.
‘We flew into London from Nashville four days ago and we’re hoping to visit Barcelona and Portugal before heading back to London for a few more days and flying home in a fortnight’s time.
‘But I don’t want to waste a day like this. Right now, people are cool and calm but give it a few more hours and tempers are going to be frayed and we don’t really want to be around for that.’
One couple, who asked not to be named, had been due to fly to Dublin via Vueling at 9am this morning. But they were unable to check-in in time due to airport scanners having crashed and so missed the flight.
One of them told : ‘We’d been waiting at 7am so we’d got to Gatwick from our home in South London two hours early.
‘But we waited and waited in line and got nowhere, there were too many people and so missed the flight. We’re going to come back tomorrow and get another flight. It’s incredibly annoying.’
Holly Watson, 36, was due to fly from Gatwick to Malaga on a Vueling flight at 9.40am.
But she said: ‘We’ve been rooted to this spot since twenty past seven this morning and have got nowhere. That’s four hours.
‘The airport is literally packed with people. I’ve never seen an airport so busy, but we’ve had very little in the way of updates from Vueling.
‘In fact, communication has been non-existent. The airport staff have no idea what’s going on because it’s a worldwide technical issue and nobody yet knows how to resolve it.
‘I get that they don’t know what’s going on – but it would be nice to at least see or speak to someone for some kind of reassurance.
‘We’ve thought about giving up and booking another flight via BA tomorrow but every time I call their customer services, I can’t get through because of the sheer demand. I get an automated message to call back.
‘It’s absolute chaos and the worst thing is not knowing what’s happening. We’re supposed to be going on a ten-day holiday and this is a nightmare start.’
Just two months ago Microsoft was hit with another major outage after Bing.com, Microsoft’s search engine, went down with the problem apparently spreading to the brand’s application programming interface which means that services such as DuckDuckGo also went down.
According to reports the outage also impacted ChatGPT and Ecosia. Despite Google’s dominance in the world of web searching, Bing’s API has numerous high profile clients.
In various reports on X, users said that they were either greeted with a blank page or a 429 HTTP code error when they attempted to log on.
Users claimed that both Bing.com and DuckDuckGo were loading but neither were producing search results when a query was typed.