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IT SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE have been hit by a outage as a result of a defect by cybersecurity giant Crowdstrike, which is causing delays to transport, difficulties to some banking systems and had even caused some TV stations to stop broadcasting.
The problem is being described as potentially the biggest IT outage in history. In Ireland, it has impacted Leap Cards and NCT services, as well as some flights into Ireland – though Dublin Airport has said it has said that its systems are not affected on a widespread basis.
Some systems have slowly come back to life on Friday evening but many are still down, as companies, governments and IT professionals rush to fix the problem.
Here’s how it played out today.
The liveblog was written by Christine Bohan, Rónán Duffy and Stephen McDermott over the course of the day.
Well, good morning!
In what has already been labelled ‘the biggest IT outage of all time’, computer systems across the world have been hit by a glitch that’s seemingly been caused by a security update.
Major infrastructure including airlines, train companies, banks and media outlets have ground to a halt after their computer systems were knocked offline or leaving devices showing the so-called “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD).
In the UK, Sky News went off air for a period and has returned without on-screen graphics and autocue for presenters.
Around the world, banks, supermarkets and other major institutions reported computer issues disrupting services, while many businesses have been left unable to take digital payments.
In Ireland, Dublin Airport currently largely unaffected by a global tech outage that has seen planes grounded at other airports and broadcasters and websites taken offline.
What do we know about the cause?
There are no indications that anything malicious has taken place.
Experts have said a flawed update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor software could be the source of the problem.CrowdStrike has not yet publicly confirmed any issue.
All Spanish airports, three Indian airlines, and the Netherlands’ airport Schiphol have all reported being significantly impacted by the outage.
Ryanair has said it is experiencing disruption across its network due to the outage. “We advise all passengers to arrive at the airport at least 3 hours before their scheduled departure time,” the airline said in a statement.
Due to a global IT issue that is impacting airlines & airports worldwide @Ryanair has requested that their passengers arrive at the airport 3 hours prior to their flight. @DublinAirport & @CorkAirport teams are assisting passengers impacted. We thank everyone for their patience. https://t.co/xPaOPATJwk
— Kevin Cullinane (@kevin_cullinane) July 19, 2024
Whiteboards being used at @belfastairport as all the screens are blue. Passenger Martin McElroy took this, and told us that it's like “the dark ages, but to be fair they’re making it work, which you have to give them credit for.” #outage pic.twitter.com/FfSmEHCvuO
— Stephen Murphy (@SMurphyTV) July 19, 2024
Major US air carriers including Delta, United and American Airlines grounded all flights on over a communication issue, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
All airports in Spain were experiencing “disruptions” from an IT outage that has hit several companies worldwide on Friday, the airport operator Aena said.
The UK’s biggest rail operator meanwhile warned of possible train cancellations due to IT issues, while photos posted online showed large queues forming at Sydney Airport in Australia.
A spokesperson for Dublin Port has told The Journal that it is fully operational – there was some brief congestion this morning but this has now eased.
They added that there’s not one overall IT system and it would depend on each operator’s system if they’re impacted
Ireland’s National Cyber Security Centre has released this statement, primarily aimed at IT workers who may be encountering problems:
The NCSC is aware of an issue with falcon agent which may cause issues when booting machines. Symptoms include hosts experiencing a bugcheck or bluescreen error related to Falcon Sensor. CrowdStrike are actively working on a fix and there is no need to contact support.
There is a ‘workaround step’ which is very technical, too technical to detail here, but details are available here from the NCSC if required
Thousands of GP practices across England have been affected by the global IT outage, which has hampered the booking of appointments and issuing of prescriptions.
We’ve asked the HSE has it seen any impacts so far here. In a response, they’ve told us:
The HSE has not been impacted directly by these issues. We remain vigilant and our cyber teams continue to monitor the situation.
Microsoft has said a resolution for Windows devices affected was “forthcoming”.
It said: “We are aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming.”
One passenger spoke to The Journal from Heathrow Airport this morning, saying there were chaotic scenes after the outage.
“Screens were down for a time, queues everywhere and the British Airways systems were all down, too.”
They said it was a “shambles”. It’s understood screens are now back up and running at the airport.
Transport for Ireland has apologised to customers who are unable to use its TFI Live and TFI Leap Top-up mobile apps.
We apologise for the inconvenience caused this morning to our customers unable to use our TFI Live and TFI Leap Top-up mobile apps.
— Transport for Ireland (@TFIupdates) July 19, 2024
There is a global outage affecting multiple countries at the moment. We don't have an estimated resolution time
A spokesperson for TFI told The Journal that they do not believe the outage is impacting public transport services.
Meanwhile, spokespeople for Irish Rail and Dublin Bus have told The Journal that their systems have not been affected and are operating as normal.
The CEO of CrowdStrike, the US tech company which appears to be the cause of the fault, has just shared an update.
George Kurtz confirms that the issue is “not a security incident or cyberattack”, adding that it is affecting an update for Windows users:
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…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
Turkish Airlines is the latest carrier to confirm it’s been affected. Turkey’s state broadcaster has said that 84 of the airline’s flights have been cancelled amid problems with ticket booking and check-in.
Ireland’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has just issued a more lengthy statement, including details about a workaround for those affected (available here):
The NCSC is aware of a global incident concerning the latest update of CrowdStrike security software.
The NCSC is contacting its constituents and stakeholders to best ascertain the level of impact to systems in Ireland.
Whilst there are impacts in several sectors, all essential services continue to operate normally. Similarly, Government IT is not currently affected.
We are aware that there may be unexpected impacts to citizens arising from the incident, and we will continue to work with any providers affected to gain an understanding of how their systems may have been affected, and to provide assistance remediating the issue.
The update is causing what is commonly referred to as a ‘Blue Screen of Death’ or BSOD loop on Windows.
This is a system crash, where the Windows operating system can no longer operate.
CrowdStrike have identified the cause of this issue, and provided advice on how to restore using a workaround.
The issue is a worldwide one, affecting all CrowdStrike customers, and is not localised to Ireland.
One group that isn’t affected are Ireland’s air traffic controllers, who’ve said their operational systems are working normally:
— AirNav Ireland (@AirNav_Ireland) July 19, 2024
Minister for State Ossian Smyth, whose departmental responsibilities include cyber security, has told RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne programme that NCT and Leap Card services are among those affected in Ireland.
Here’s what we know so far:
Meanwhile in Belfast…
Whiteboards being used at @belfastairport as all the screens are blue. Passenger Martin McElroy took this, and told us that it's like “the dark ages, but to be fair they’re making it work, which you have to give them credit for.” #outage pic.twitter.com/FfSmEHCvuO
— Stephen Murphy (@SMurphyTV) July 19, 2024
News has emerged of the outage impacting another, somewhat unexpected, group: the organising committee of the Paris Olympics.
The committee says that the problem is affecting the accreditation system, with some people unable to pick up badges before next Friday’s opening ceremony on the River Seine.
The committee said the outage was not affecting ticket sales and that the Olympic torch relay would continue as planned.
“This does not call into question the security of access to critical and essential information,” Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris 2024 organising committee, has said.
Richard Ford, the Chief Technical Officer of Irish cyber security company Integrity360, has said that questions need to be asked about how the issue happened.
“CrowdStrike has had a catastrophic error that has taken a large percentage of the global IT systems offline,” he said.
“On the one hand it’s shown how large CrowdStrike’s market share is, but it’s also shown how fragile the interconnected world we live in can be.”
Another update from Ossian Smyth, the minister with responsibility for cyber security.
He has said that Chief Information Officers for the government met this morning to discuss the outage. Two government services have been impacted and are still down: NCT bookings and Leap Card online top-ups.
More pressingly, he also says that it’s still not clear when this will all be fixed. The next update from him will be at 4pm.
Government CIOs met this morning to share information on the impact of the #CloudStrike outage. Two govt services are down:
— Ossian Smyth TD (@smytho) July 19, 2024
1. NCT online booking -an alternative is to book by phone 01-4135992
2. Leap Card online top-up- an alternative is to top-up at a retailer or train station…
In another example of companies being practical in the face of the outage, Ryanair has been using print-outs to get information to passengers at impacted airports.
Here’s one given to people at Bordeaux Airport a short time ago. It says that a ‘small number’ of Ryanair flights have been cancelled due to the outage and gives advice to passengers on what to do if their flight is affected.
12-hour timelapse of American Airlines, Delta, and United plane traffic after what was likely the biggest IT outage in history forced a nationwide ground stop of the three airlines. pic.twitter.com/wwcQeiEtVe
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) July 19, 2024
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 in the US, 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 [US-time] 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.
CrowdStrike founder and CEO @George_Kurtz explains on TODAY what led to the global computer outages that began earlier today. pic.twitter.com/O3nbVWuNPI
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) July 19, 2024
“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.”
Over to you: We want to hear from readers. Have you been affected by the unprecedented IT outage today? Send us a short message to tips@thejournal.ie describing how you’ve been impacted, along with a photo, video or screenshot if you have it.
The NHS in Britain has warned that the ‘majority of GP practices’ in England have been disrupted by the outage, with people unable to make appointments and patients being redirected to pharmacies instead.
We’ve checked the situation here and Irish GPs have been unaffected by the IT issues. The Irish College of General Practitioners told us that there has been no impact on GP services, with most GPs here working on local networks rather than cloud-based services.
One reassuring note amid the mild chaos, at least.
We mentioned earlier that only a small number of government services have been impacted by the outage. Minister of State Ossian Smyth has just confirmed that Leap Card top-ups are now back up and running.
Online bookings are still not working for NCTs, however, and anyone looking to book a test has been advised to ring instead (the phone number is 01 – 4135992).
The Minister also said that there are some problems with the National Driver Licence Service. “They’d hoped to resolve NDLS by 3pm but there are still some issues,” he said in a tweet.
We’re going to finish up our liveblog for now. We’ll still be covering what is being described as the largest IT outage in history, though – you can follow our news stories on the site as we keep track of how and when this is resolved, and whether any more companies are impacted in Ireland.
Thanks for sticking with us. Have a good – and hopefully glitch-free – Friday evening.
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Most disliked man in Ireland.
@Darren Mc Mahon: I think this self important windbag is WELL PAST his sell by date.Where did we get this numpty from?
@Darren Mc Mahon: €50m spent on consultants in one year almost a million a week
Couldn’t write it
@Darren Mc Mahon: And a costly idiot still raking it in sadly….
@Darren Mc Mahon: you beat me to it.
Remind me my LLA heroes where the ADDITIONAL €500M in funding for the water infrastructure is coming from?
Oh yeah, general taxation. So ultimately we the Irish people are paying water charges. Wonder how many houses could be built with a multi year investment of €500M?
A victory for morons.
@Darren Mc Mahon: absolute p***k If ever there was…repulsive individual
@Darren Mc Mahon: He’s not even in Ireland most of the time.
@Gus Sheridan: FG
@Darren Mc Mahon: he’ll be remembered for that photograph with the wan.
@Darren Mc
And he was promoted to Europe by the second most hated man Kenny
Two gombeens The two should swim away A SA P
@Gus Sheridan: Gave a interview and gave yates a freebie in Brussels few weeks back also lol
@Darren Mc Mahon:
@Gareth Cooney: How much did the councils waste over the years with all the extra staff that Irish Water said it didn’t need?
@Darren Mc Mahon: Not realy, dont forget he is up against Noonan and Enda for that title.
@MK76: mk76 who gives too foooook what you think.
@MK76: Well put.
What does that even mean. Irish water has seen the test of time.
@Garreth OMahony: He probably means his watch has stopped.
@Garreth OMahony: It probably means I politician terms, it was a total waste of time and public money but I lie for a living so whatever is the truth it will not come out of my lips. I have not greasing my hands just yet and although I am rich being a cease ball but I have a few crooked friends whose noses are still in the through.
@Jho Harris: Think you mean grease ball.
@Garreth OMahony: He is trying to talk it up, he didn’t set it up as Merkel on behalf of the IMF told him to set it up in order to give it away to some IMF friend to make money out of like in buy out scenarios?
“John Perkins, Former Advisor IMF.
“My job was to identify countries with resources that corporations covert, like oil and then arrange a huge loan to that country from the World Bank or from one of its sister organisations. The money however would not go to the country, it would go to our own corporations who would make huge profits, but the majority of the people would suffer terrible as a result, because money would be diverted from Education, Healthcare and other Social Services to pay interest on the debt.”
What happened when the IMF moved in and the debt couldn’t be repaid?
“We go back into that country and say, since you can’t pay your debt, sell your resource oil or whatever real cheap to our corporations without any environmental restrictions or, or social regulations. Privatise, sell your electric utilities, your water, sewage systems, your schools, your jails, all your public sector businesses to our corporations, and in the few cases where we failed economic hitman, the jackals went in and still do and aah, they either assassinate the leaders of the country or overthrow them in coups.”
@Kerry Blake: Maybe I don’t!
Just when FG thought their week could get no worse, up pops Big ‘tick’ Phil during a rare break from the EU feeding trough.
Phil’s threat to cut my water supply “down to a trickle” was the catalyst for my joining the right to water campaign. I can’t thank him enough !
This fool is the poster child of all that is rotten in Irish politics. The bigger the disaster you are the bigger a reward you get. Create Irish Water = get appointed to 400k a year job in Brussels.
@Pat Mustard: Not just here but in the EU as well?
@Alois Irlmaier: wasn’t Enda being lined up for some EU parliament thing not so long ago, saying that it may not be too long before we see it again
@Richard Cronin: Yep but he didn’t want it yet as he had more work to do as Taoiseach, more taxation I bet?
Or he had to wait for a virgin to be sacrificed to a blood moon, both are hard to come across now lol.
Only took what over billion euros . Before big Phil speaks out. That figures
Perhaps somebody should try a bit of water boarding?
@George Vladisavljevic: looking at the head of him it looks like somebody already did!
It’s not over, water charges replaced by excessive use? 133 ltrs? Excessive use my arse. .the people will still have the final say on this.
@Padraig Grimes: Originally the limit was announced at 150 ltrs but then this revised limit of 133 ltrs was rolled out,watch as the limits are revised downwards so as to introduce water charges by stealth, FG/FF/L all collude in water charges, what hypocrisy Labour at their conference calling out FG/FF on austerity measures when Labour was the champion of same, as for Phil Hogan, sure wasn’t he well rewarded for his bullying tactics just as no doubt the bold Enda will be in time.
Were it not for him and his contempt and arrogance, the government might have got away with the scam.
We owe him a huge vote of thanks.
@Dave Doyle:
Fair point.
Another one that should be put up against the wall… parasasite..
Everything wrong with European politics summed up in one individual
“Irish Water is still there” That may be Phil. Try Google “Irish Water Pollution Fines” and then tell me where the money for the fines comes from. Go on Phil, Google those four words ya gob5hite.
Because mass demostrations which caused the suspension of water charges definitely means it’s seen the test of time. Hogan is beyond stupid.
Just another layer of bureaucracy, the local CoCos still carry out any repairs.
Only one word for Phil and it rhymes with Banker
Toss pot
Big Phil makes an appearance every now and then and offers his ” tuppence” halfpenny rant .Of course Phil is an Idiot of the highest order and knows not what he is talking about. A complete Bullshitt.r that is only interested in feathering his own nest. Of course Irish Water should never have been established,it only gave jobs to retired County Managers who already are getting far too much in pensions anyway. So Citizens, don’t give much heed to anything that big Phil says.
Even his own party ran him out of town .. Yates I’m.blaming you … Test of time …My hole ..
Can journal fact crack that clows claims of 250000 homes in dublin with out water and that no one could have a shower.
What an absolute plank that man is.
Who in the name of god votes for these people?
What a clown
Phil you Boots! Phil them up!
Simon Coveney the Bingo Caller. Numbers abounding from him with no substance.
Great little country that can survive these Jokers.
It remains there in defiance of the will of the majority of the electorate because Coveny wanted to be seen as a hard man to the FG party in the run up to the leadership bid and FF let him walk on them and went back on their promise in the GE, whether it survives in the long term is debatable as it’s management style has made it the most controversial semi state quangos but what is certain is that the handling of the issue will not gain any votes for either FF or FG and at their current rate of loss they can certainly not afford that. So Hogan can look back on his career as the minister who lost his party half their seats on their first time out and may yet lead to further losses, a nice record of achievement.
Phil, Phil, Phil, *nods head sagely* Go home Son, Your village needs you!
Phil hogan you excuse of a politician, go flup yourself, your good for nothing
Manbearpig
You normally say that about something that’s been around for 50 or 100 years, not something that was created in 2013. I believe he also uttered some nonsense about kenny being one of our best taoiseachs!
His threats galvanised the people. The man is an absolute tool…
WTF is he on?
They won’t allow a little girl in Cork access to medicinal cannabis, yet this lad here is obviously on something!
@Joe Smith: Tiny tiny feet lol.
Heard on RTÉ earlier and the interviewer didn’t really get stuck in. IW as a central management of water is the correct way rather than coco but he didn’t any questions on how well it was done or if EU will mandate privatisation. I think they will in time.
Very arrogant, ignorant,man.
Arsehole with very deep pockets in the greatest club of all time
Microcosm of all that is bad with Irish politics plus to think that he was a Top FG candidate!?! Says it all
Stand??? is he gone mad what profit this the company make last year .
Much better to have thirty local authorities involved than one utility. Thirty chief executives, thirty everything except people to fix leaks.
Oh yes, the last thing we wanted was one company doing it all. That’s mad, Ted.
@John Mulligan: or set up a overseeing body that uses the existing funding plus the additonal money from the property tax to start fixing the infrastructure. Perhaps if it’s needed add an extra 100 euro per year on top of the LPT then when the network has improved worry about meters with a true fair usage allowance instead of spending 1 billion on a billing company and meters . Perhaps this is what Phil was advised to do but as no minutes were kept it’s hard to know . The only people that have benefited from this shambles are those working directly and indirectly for IW .
@John Mulligan: we would not have thirty Chief in place of one. If it had been left in control of County Councils , as it should have, then they would have continued on doing the job, all that was needed was give them the money to carry out the work. Don’t forget that Idiot Phil also got rid of Town Councils, another disaster. It appears that He wanted full control, a dictatorship. Phil is a Bull Boy. He bullied his way in FG to keep Inda at the top a number of years ago.
@John Mulligan: a quango costing billions in excesses. Thick comment
Arrogant and delusional.
Listened to interview hogan just will not admit he f….d up on Irish water then Kenny gave him junket to Brussels lol
One of the most hated person in Ireland & counting!
Used by kenny and he could not see beyond his nose, nothing but a big mouth bully that kenny had to get rid of before the election .
‘I think Phil Hogan has seen the test of time’ and he got a minus 5% grade… But yet a cosy job in the EU?
@Alois Irlmaier: The cosy Brussels job was to put the man out of harms way where he could do no more damage. Hopefully the French will now put the EU to bed and Hogan might have to get a real job.
@Virtual Architect: A job in Irish Water hummm lol.
I WOULD NOT WASTE WORDS ON THAT CLOWN
@James Mc Loughlin: And that is why he is in the EU in a cosy job as no one would ever vote for him again and they gave him a job to reward him in an unelected role, proves that the EU is undemocratic and full of jobs for those who scratch the right backs?
Just like Howlin and the Labour party big Phil and F.G. never seem to get what the people said, you have screw the people by wasting money that could have put into hospitals, schools, taking medical cards of poor, sick and dying to pay for this waste. now f–k of back to your pay masters europe.
Well Folks when you vote for a political party you get the likes of Hulk Hogan. So get rid of the political parties. Vote them out again and again until the conversation changes fundamentally. Let’s stop playing the same old broken record ad infinitum.
What a complete tool. How anyone ever voted for that clown is beyond me
Phillip Hogan, a??hole of the century .
Why do you people vote idiots like this in? You are destroying this country with your votes election after election. So sad and very unpatriotic
@Patrick McCann: well said Patrick
Delusional
He could give 2 good fkucs what the people of this badly run auld country think ,the more stupid incompetent arrogant lazy thick and useless as a politician you are the more you are rewarded while the working man and woman of this country pay a marginal tax rate of nearly 55% to keep those fukcers paid and their Golden plated pensions topped up ,and in turn receive a third world health system no housing roads that destroy our massively over priced cars no public transport outside the main cities and don’t get me started on broadband……of water
As I said before: two words is the best solution, Quit EU.
A deluded auld fart if ever there was one
If ever the death penalty was introduced it should be for this man
He should be shot
@Christopher Gardiner: August is always a good time for heart attacks lol.
Pure opportunist money grabber absolutely no interest in politics who s only mission was to kinnive his way to a money oriented number in Brussels , couldn’t care less about the citizens of this country, another rat
So Phil Hogan saved Dublin’s water!! Wow! Thanks Phil. And there was me thinking you were the lowest form of life to have wormed your way into our political life. How wrong can you be!
What an arrogant fool, who thinks that we are stupid enough to take. Him seriously. He doesn’t care on the EU gravy train !
A COMPLETE USER OF PEOPLE OF IRELAND
When Phil Hogan announced the charges for water his attitude was autocratic and insulting. I remember listening to him and thought
this man has some nerve and I paid my water charges.
His family should be absolutely ashamed of what he done. Disgusting individual.
Idiot!
Trickle Trickle …
Trickle Trickle Uncle Phil
Fill my kettle can I Still
With fine water pissing Down
Bursting banks to flood the Town
Trickle Trickle Uncle Phil
We promise not a drop to Spill
When making coffee or a Cuppa
Brendan Ogle thinks your a Muppa
Trickle Trickle in a Jar
Uncle Phil you went too Far
Accusing us of being Polluters
Water never made us Follutered
Simon Coveney clears his Throat
With plenty water to float his Boat
Enjoying the sun on open Sea
While Paddy has to pay to Pee
Trickle Trickle hear the Hiss
Forty percent not hard to Miss
1 million meters in the Ground
But still not one leak can be Found
Trickle Trickle Motor Tax
Taken for to fund the Jax
Paying twice is very Slick
But paying trice takes the Mick
Trickle Trickle water Grant
Greasing palms to stop the Rant
Outstanding bills, pay you Must
Took the soup, eat a Crust
Trickle Trickle Fine Gael
One old party up for Sale
Big D wants to Privatise
Love your Tender, close our Eyes ……
-NK62F
I’d love to give him a slap!
A complete pig of a man
A cynical, swaggering, pig-headed bag-man
Horrible fu..
What a disgusting man.
He has a face like my arse [ on a bad day]. They don’t call me ‘diarahehe dick’ for no reason.
knob
Who is Ivan Yeats, who cares what he said?
have your say