CrowdStrike outage: Airlines start to resume services
Published July 20, 2024last updated July 20, 2024
Thousands of companies were dealing with huge backlogs of customers after one of the biggest technology crashes in recent years. Flights and doctor visits were canceled, and banks and TV channels went offline.
Airlines have begun to resume services after a software outage caused flight cancelations, stranding thousandsImage: Mailee Osten-Tan/Getty Images
Companies and other organizations have been dealing with a backlog of orders, canceled appointments and delayed travel plans due to the outage.
Tens of millions of people from Brazil to Japan were hit by Friday's massive outage affecting devices running Microsoft Windows, which caused thousands of flights to be canceled, bank services to go offline and several TV channels to fall silent.
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm, blamed the roll-out of a software update for the outages. CEO George Kurtz told the US news channel CNBC he wanted to "personally apologize to every organization, every group and every person who has been impacted."
American cybersecurity firm apologizes for global IT outrage
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What's the latest on air travel?
Operations at Berlin's international airport were largely back to normal on Saturday. A spokesperson told Germany's DPA news agency that flights were on schedule with minor delays, with only two arrivals from the US canceled.
Multiple US airlines and airports across Asia also said they were resuming operations, including in Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, India and Singapore.
Spanish airport operator Aena, which earlier reported a computer systems incident, said its IT was up and running again in the afternoon.
Paris 2024 – and 100 years ago
The Olympic Games are back in Paris after an absence of 100 years. Not surprisingly, a lot has changed in the past century, but the fascination with outstanding sporting achievement remains.
Image: Cover-Images/IMAGO
1924 – on the outskirts of the city
A hundred years ago, most of the venues were located outside the city. Only the Velodrome d'Hiver cycling arena was close to the Eiffel Tower. Most of the Olympic events took place in Colombes, a municipality in the greater Paris area, where the former Olympic stadium was located (photo). It will also be used in 2024, as a field hockey stadium.
Image: United Archives International/IMAGO
2024 – right in the heart of the city
At this year's Games, the Olympic organizers are bringing the competitions into the heart of the city. Temporary venues have been errected near the Eiffel Tower, on the Place de la Concorde, in front of the Invalides and in the Grand Palais. Even the Seine will be part of the action.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Xinhua
1924 – The first opening ceremony in what would become a tradition
At the opening ceremony of the 1924 Olympic Games, all the teams, led by the Greek team, entered the Olympic Stadium for the first time and lined up there before the Games were officially opened. From then on, this procedure became a mainstay of the Olympic Games.
Image: Colorsport/IMAGO
2024 – A different kind of opening ceremony
The opening ceremony of the 2024 Games will be unusual. The athletes will not gather in the stadium, but will travel down the Seine in 600 boats – past Notre Dame to Pont Alexandre III, where the opening ceremony will take place.
Image: Yonhap/YONHAPNEWS AGENCY/picture alliance
1924 – hardly any women athletes
Of the 3,089 athletes at the 1924 Summer Games, only 135 were women. At that time, Olympic competitions for women had already been held for 24 years. However, the number of female disciplines was still small; medals were awarded to women only in fencing, swimming, diving and tennis.
Image: United Archives International/IMAGO
2024 – parity between the sexes
The organizers have announced a total of 10,500 participants for the 2024 Olympics, of which 5,250 will be men and 5,250 women. The Paris 2024 Games will therefore be the first with full gender parity in terms of the number of athletes involved.
Image: Swen Pförtner/dpa/picture alliance
1924 – Chariots of Fire
England's Harold Abrahams won the 100 meters in 10.6 seconds. This was an Olympic record at the time. The duel between Abrahams, a Jew, and Scotsman Eric Liddell, a Catholic, was later immortalized in the Oscar-winning feature film "Chariots of Fire."
Image: Colorsport/IMAGO
2024 – under 10 seconds
100 years after Abrahams' record, his time probably wouldn't even get him into the final. In Tokyo, Marcell Jacobs won gold in 9.80 seconds. In Paris, Noah Lyles (second from right) of the USA is the favorite. His best time is 9.83 seconds.
Image: Michel Euler/AP Photo/picture alliance
1924 – Future Tarzan wins gold
One of the most successful athletes 100 years ago was American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, who won gold three times in the Olympic pool and also competed in water polo. Weissmuller later became famous as a Hollywood actor, playing Tarzan in 12 films.
Image: Colorsport/IMAGO
2024 – homegrown NBA superstar
There's no indication that France's Victor Wembanyama is set to star in any Tarzan movies in the foreseeable future. However, the 2.24-meter (7'35") basketball player looks to be on his was to NBA superstardom on the basketball court
Image: Artur Widak/NurPhoto/picture alliance
1924 – sporting blast from the past
Among the sports included in the Olympic lineup in 1924 was polo, a rather exotic pastime compared to the other events. Perhaps that's one reason why it was dropped after the 1936 Games in Berlin.
Image: TopFoto/IMAGO
2024 - breaking, aka. breakdancing
100 years on, the IOC is trying to attract a younger audience and has been expanding the canon of sports for some time now. In Paris in 2024, breaking will be included as an Olympic sport for the first time.
Image: Norbert Schmidt/picture alliance
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Across Latin America, airports were asking passengers to arrive for flights hours earlier than usual.
Additional flight delays can be expected, particularly on those airlines affected by the outage, as they restore services.
So far, more than 5,000 flights were canceled as a result of the outage, out of more than 110,000 scheduled commercial flights, aviation analytics company Cirium said.
How long will it take until things get back to normal?
"Quite some time," cybersecurity expert Sven Herpig told DW, as firms struggled to update their IT systems,.
CrowdStrike has warned that it could take some time for all of its clients to install the fix and restart their entire computer networks.
As the disruptions were traced back to the flawed software update, Herpig said: "This update should have never passed a quality test, so you can assume that they didn't do the quality test or they didn't do it correctly."
Herpig also said there are no guarantees this won't happen again.
"You can regulate it but in the end of the day, it can happen again and we will likely see it happen again in our lifetime."
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How did the cyber outage happen?
Microsoft said the issue began on Thursday and started affecting Windows users running the CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity tool.
Businesses and governments worldwide experienced hourslong disruptions and affected computer after computer started showing the "blue screen of death" error message.
Air travel was immediately hit and from Amsterdam to Zurich, Singapore to Hong Kong, airport operators flagged technical issues that were disrupting their services. While some airports halted all flights, in others airline staff had to check-in passengers manually. Long lines formed at airports across Asia, the US and Europe.
Flights were canceled and elective surgeries delayed after a massive outage took down many communications networksImage: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu/picture alliance
Banks, hospitals and financial services companies warned customers of disruptions and traders across markets spoke of problems executing transactions. Several TV channels were taken off the air, including Britain's Sky News and Australia's ABC.
Companies were left patching up their systems and trying to assess the damage, even as officials tried to tamp down panic by ruling out foul play.
Within hours of the outage, CrowdStrike said the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack. CEO Kurtz said in a statement his teams were "fully mobilized" to help affected customers and "a fix has been deployed."
Even advertising screens went blank in New York City's Times SquareImage: Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo/picture alliance
Experts stress that Friday's disruptions were a reminder that deploying software from only a handful of providers can leave global IT systems vulnerable.
Scores of companies rely on CrowdStrike for their security needs.
