A global cyberattack appears to be underway
A widespread Windows failure has brought down the computer systems of emergency services, banks, airports and more.
Windows machines are reportedly failing to boot, following a flawed update pushed out by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
The issue is creating havoc worldwide with reports of:
- Flights being grounded at airports across the world
- Online banking services refusing to let customers log in or transact
- Hospitals and medical services disrupted
- Broadcasters being forced off air
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There are suggestions that some of the problems are being caused by an unrelated outage affecting Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, particularly those affecting air travel. Microsoft claims the Azure issue has now been resolved.
The Down Detector website is showing a sharp uptick in reports of disrupted services, including Microsoft, Visa, Ryanair and many other companies, as shown below:
Down Detector indicates a widespread attack is underway
Troy Hunt, creator of the HaveIBeenPwned website, has also reported on X that he’s seeing widespread reports of Windows PCs suffering from the infamous blue screen of death, where they refuse to boot.
“Something super weird happening right now: just been called by several totally different media outlets in the last few minutes, all with Windows machines suddenly BSoD’ing (Blue Screen of Death),” he posted.
There are reports of the problem striking in the U.S. India, Japan and many other countries around the world. Attempts to log into two U.K. banks this morning have failed. There are also reports of flights being grounded in several airports worldwide.
U.S. emergency service computers have also been affected. Writing on the Hacker News website, one commenter claims: “My entire emergency department got knocked offline by this. Really scary when you have ambulances coming in and are trying to stabilize a heart attack. 911 is down in Oregon too.”
In the U.K., train services are being disrupted by the failure. “We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network,” the Southern Railway team posted on X, which is responsible for many of the train services in the south of England.
“We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks.”
Sky News was forced off air in the U.K. having also reportedly been hit by the problem, but it has since resumed broadcasting.
CrowdStrike Flaw
CrowdStrike’s CEO George Kurtz acknowledged the problem was caused by his company’s software in a post on X.
“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,” he wrote. “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 organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels,” he added. “Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”
Security expert Kevin Beaumont claimed to have seen the flawed update that is believed to have caused the issue. “I have obtained the CrowdStrike driver they pushed via auto update,” he posted on X. “I don’t know how it happened, but the file isn’t a validly formatted driver and causes Windows to crash every time.”
The problem for companies looking to recover from the attack is that the fix would need to be applied manually on each machine, Beaumont added. It’s not something that can be automated. That could hugely slow down the recovery from this incident.
