Chaos day in the ticker

Faulty update paralyzes Windows systems

Technical failures caused massive problems worldwide on Friday.

(Bild: AFP/Getty Images via AFP)

Massive IT problems at the cybersecurity company Crowdstrike paralyzed numerous Windows systems worldwide on Friday. International air traffic was particularly affected, but banks, hospitals, broadcasters and telecommunications companies also reported disruptions. The all-clear was given by the railroads, insurance companies and supermarkets.

Technical failures caused problems worldwide on Friday. The all-clear has now been given in many sectors, but chaos still prevails in some.

The most important facts in brief:

• The worldwide IT problems have not spared Austria either. However, most companies, healthcare facilities and authorities such as the police and judiciary got off lightly. Air traffic, on the other hand, was affected.

• The railroads, insurance companies and supermarkets did not experience any IT breakdowns.
• There were disruptions at Schwechat Airport. Check-in and boarding processes for Wizz Air, Ryanair, Eurowings and Turkish Airlines had to be handled manually.

• Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz confirmed the error around midday on Friday. A faulty update was responsible, which prevented countless computers worldwide from booting up. 
• The US technology giant Microsoft announced that a "third-party provider" had caused the failures.

krone.at ticker: The events of the day

Chaos at Schwechat Airport
There were disruptions at Vienna Schwechat Airport early in the morning. The airport regretted the inconvenience and advised passengers to check the status of their flight on the viennaairport.com website or with the airline they had booked and to travel with hand luggage only.

Airlines worldwide are struggling with problems
The Italian airline ITA Airways, Ryanair, US airlines such as American Airlines or Delta Airlines and the Swiss air traffic control Skyguide also reported problems. The Dutch airline KLM suspended most of its operations due to the computer problems that occurred worldwide.

The German AUA parent company Lufthansa and its subsidiary Eurowings were also affected by the global technical problems. "Access to the profile and bookings is currently only possible to a limited extent," Lufthansa's website stated on Friday.

Broadcaster "off-air"
 Several television stations are also affected by the global computer problems. The British television station Sky News temporarily stopped broadcasting and announced on a still image: "We apologize for the interruption to this broadcast. We hope to be able to restore the Sky News broadcast shortly." The program is now back on air. Canal+ was also unable to broadcast.

No transfers, problems on the stock exchange
Australia's largest bank, Commonwealth Bank, announced that some customers were unable to make transfers due to the service outage. The Australian government convened an emergency meeting.

Security software as the cause
The disruption was caused by a problem at the US cyber security company Crowdstrike. Due to the large number of companies affected, the cloud services Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure were also blamed for the outages.

A Microsoft spokesperson told the industry magazine "Heise": "We are aware of the issue of Windows devices being affected due to an update to a third-party software platform. We expect a solution to be found shortly."

Around midday on Friday, Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz confirmed the error, saying the problem had been "identified, isolated" and "will be fixed".