Major IT outages have hit industries across the world; almost 1,400 flights are cancelled and banking, healthcare and shops affected
Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike says a “defect” in one of its software updates hit Windows operating systems
“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” the firm says in a statement
The majority of GP surgeries in England are experiencing issues, the NHS says, with trains, shops and pharmacies in the UK also hit.
Top UK officials met for an emergency Cobra meeting a little earlier, as No 10 says it isn’t aware of the outage affecting government business.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer didn’t chair the Cobra meeting, as he was holding cabinet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Downing Street.
A No 10 spokeswoman says ministers are being regularly updated on the outage, and government is “working closely with the respective sectors and industries on this issue”.
Microsoft says the “underlying cause” of the mass IT outage has been fixed for its apps, but “residual impact” is continuing to affect some services.
The company previously said the issue was due to “an update from a third-party software platform” – which has now been confirmed as Crowdstrike.
Source: The BBC
Tags: cybersecurity update causes IT chaos
