Microsoft Outage Highlights: SpiceJet's Technical Issue Fixed, Airline Confirms 'All Operations Restored To Normal'
Microsoft Outage Highlights: Please follow this space and keep refreshing the page for all the latest updates from India and around the world.
SpiceJet airlines issued a statement on X and stated that its operations have been restored to normal.
Amid the Microsoft outage, IndiGo issued a travel advisory and also said that it was working to restore the operations at the earliest.
US Department Of Homeland Security tweeted about the outage, saying: "The Department, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are working with CrowdStrike, Microsoft and our federal, state, local and critical infrastructure partners to fully assess and address system outages."
Chairman and CEO at Microsoft, Satya Nadella, tweeted: "Yesterday, CrowdStrike released an update that began impacting IT systems globally. We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online."
On Microsoft's global outage, Dr Sanjay Bahl, DG, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team said: "...It is a technical glitch. Because if you look at cyber security it consists of three things, confidentiality, integrity, and availability. It has affected the availability aspect. So it has not affected anything other than availability. Its impact in India was much less as compared to the Western countries. And the reason is that it has to be purchased separately and not many people have bought it as a tool to protect themselves. Other competing products are also available, and people use those products instead of CrowdStrike..."
According to a White House official US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the CrowdStrike global tech outage. "His team is engaged across the interagency to get sector-by-sector updates throughout the day and is standing by to provide assistance as needed," the official said.
Announcing the resumption of its operations, American Airlines posted on X: "Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5:00 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience."
London Stock Exchange said it was back up and running after the technical glitches. A report by news agency Reuters said that the LSEG announced its data and systems were finally working after Microsoft's global outage caused a technical snag, affecting multiple industries, including broadcasters, airlines, banking, and healthcare.
Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder & CMD, Ola, says "On the @Microsoft outage, here’s the main thing I feel we can do. Outages are momentary with no deliberate intent to cause harm. Can happen once in a while to any company. But it represents an outcome that could also happen due to deliberate action by bad actors and intentions. And since 80% of our data is stored outside India, we won’t be able to do anything. Govt needs to recognise the risk of our data residing globally and bring more stringent data localisation norms and action to address these risks."
Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) is in touch with Microsoft.
"What has happened is that CrowdStrike which is basically a security provider was doing certain updates and that has gone wrong and due to which a blue screen appeared on systems that were using Windows. There's no impact on users of Linux and Mac. Due to this, all systems are down which has not only impacted flight services across the globe but also impacted 911 services in US," says cyber expert Sanjay Kaushik on Microsoft outage.
American Airlines has announced that it has restored operations after experiencing disruptions due to a significant global computer systems outage.
As per the latest update on the Microsoft Service Health status checker, all the services of the Redmond tech giant appear to be working fine, including the likes of Microsoft 365, Outlook, and OneDrive.
"Flights are cancelled due to the cascading effect of the worldwide travel system outage, beyond our control. The option to rebook/claim a refund is temporarily unavailable."
A passenger named Dev Mohanty talked to ANI at the Chennai airport and said, "I had a flight to Goa and it has been cancelled. But, IndiGo did not inform us by text or e-mail. We have not received any form of intimation that the flight has been cancelled. On reaching here, I was told by the CISF officials that the flight had been cancelled...IndiGo has made no arrangements whatsoever...I am not sure what the alternate arrangements are..."
Minister of Civil Aviation, Rammohan Naidu says, "I have directed airport authorities and airlines to be compassionate and provide extra seating, water, and food for passengers affected by delays. We understand your concerns and are working tirelessly to ensure your safe and swift travel. Your patience and cooperation are greatly appreciated."
President & CEO CrowdStrike, George Kurtz, said, "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, and 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 organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."
In response to the widespread issue, CrowdStrike has provided a series of steps for affected users to mitigate the problem. Check out the detailed steps here.
The National Health Service (NHS) in Britain has reported widespread disruptions at most doctors' offices across England due to a global internet outage. NHS England stated that the glitch is impacting the appointment and patient record system used across the entire public health system. As the primary provider of healthcare in the U.K., the state-funded NHS serves the vast majority of the population.
The NHS noted that the issue is affecting the majority of general practitioners' practices but clarified that it is not affecting the emergency ambulance service accessed via the 999 number, reported the AP.
The Jayprakash Narayan International Airport in Bihar's Patna has also been affected by this global outage of Microsoft. Flight operations have taken a hit there.
Manual boarding passes were seen being issued to passengers at Goa airport due to a 'server outage' which has left the IT services inoperable.
Baltic Hub, a significant container facility located in the Baltic port of Gdansk, Poland, is grappling with challenges caused by a global system outage. The hub temporarily closed its entry gates on Friday morning and suspended operations as a result.
Sky News in the UK resumed broadcasting after a disruption that temporarily took it off the air in the morning. Upon returning, the news anchor relied on printed notes to continue delivering the news. Despite the broadcast interruption, Sky News maintained its news updates through its app and website.
X owner Elon Musk reshared his tweet from 2021 that said, 'Macrohard >> Microsoft'.
Rajasthan: Microsoft faces global outage, flight operations affected. A SpiceJet flight attendant says, "Systems are still not up. Flights are also getting delayed and passengers are also facing problems...we wrote everything manually...There was a huge crowd...We issued manual boarding passes...But we managed..."
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issued an advisory that read, "It has been reported that Windows hosts related to Crowd strike agent Falcon Sensor, are facing outages and getting crashed due to recent update received in the product. The concerned Windows hosts are experiencing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), related to Falcon Sensor. The issues occurred in the latest update of CrowdStrike and the changes have been reverted by the CrowdStrike Team..."
In the advisory the government agency has shared some temporary workaround tips to fix the issue.
BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar while reacting on the matter said, "...Microsoft 365 and Microsoft suite is used by millions of Indians...Any outage on this platform disrupts the business and operations of many companies. I hope Microsoft will restore the services quickly...I am confident that the government of India will engage with Microsoft to ensure services are restored back at the earliest..."
Union IT Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw tweeted, "MEITY is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage. The reason for this outage has been identified and updates have been released to resolve the issue. CERT is issuing a technical advisory. NIC network is not affected."
Vistara tweets, "We are experiencing technical challenges across various aspects of our operations due to a global outage at our service provider's end. We are working with them to resolve the issue as quickly as possible..."
According to posts on social media, Xbox serves were also impacted by this global outage.
Airports across the nation have taken a huge hit following this outage. Numerous IT services were disrupted and deemed unoperational. Blank boarding passes were handed to passengers and the details were filled by using a pen.
Following the global outage, major banks, media channels and news agencies have taken a hit. Sky News has been off air due to the same for quite some time. Payment systems have been impacted in different parts of the world, including Australia and the UK. Even the stock market has taken a hit. Services at the London Stock Exchange have been disrupted due to this global outage.
A major issue with Microsoft's cloud services in the Central US region has led to widespread disruptions resulting in delays and cancellation of flight operations across the globe.
Background
Microsoft Outage Highlights: According to Reuters, a major technical problem with Microsoft's cloud services in the Central US region has caused extensive disruptions, affecting multiple airlines and leading to numerous flight cancellations and delays. The repercussions of this cloud outage appear to have extended to Indian airline operators like IndiGo and SpiceJet, resulting in operational challenges for them as well. After considering the gravity of the matter Australia has called an emergency meeting on the Microsoft issue.
Australia Calls Emergency Meeting
Technical disruptions are affecting various institutions throughout Australia, including news outlets, banks, supermarkets, airports, and telecommunications services. Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra airports are currently experiencing operational interruptions, leading to difficulties for passengers attempting to check in. An Australian government representative mentioned that the National Emergency Mechanism group will convene promptly to address the situation.
The spokesperson said, "The Australian Government is working closely with the National Cyber Security Coordinator on this unfolding outage. We understand Triple-0 services are currently not affected by this outage. The information as it stands is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies."
Microsoft Global Outage Affected Airlines In US, India
In the United States, Frontier Airlines, Allegiant Air, and Sun Country Airlines experienced operational disruptions attributed to a widespread outage. Frontier Airlines specifically cited a "major Microsoft technical issue" as the cause of their temporary service interruptions.
Meanwhile, Sun Country Airlines reported disruptions in their booking and check-in services, which they attributed to issues with a third-party vendor, without explicitly naming Microsoft. Allegiant Air confirmed that their website outage was due to problems with Microsoft Azure.
The impact of this outage extended to India, affecting three airlines — IndiGo, Akasa, and SpiceJet — with significant failures in their check-in systems. Passengers at major airports like Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi were reportedly affected. These airlines, utilizing the GoNow check-in system, have been dealing with these technical challenges since 10:45 am IST and are working closely with Microsoft to resolve the situation promptly.
Microsoft Global Outage: Technical Details
According to Reuters, Microsoft has identified that the outage initially impacted a specific group of customers using various Azure services in the Central US region. Azure, a cloud computing platform, facilitates the creation, deployment, and management of applications and services on a global scale.
Microsoft Global Outage: BSOD Reported
Furthermore, according to several media reports, millions of Windows users globally experienced the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error, resulting in unexpected shutdowns and restarts. This issue has been associated with a recent update released by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
It remains to be seen when full services are restored by the Redmond tech giant.
- - - - - - - - - Advertisement - - - - - - - - -