Global services are slowly recovering after a glitch caused chaos

Businesses and services around the world are slowly recovering from a major IT outage that affected computer systems for hours on Thursday and Friday.

Businesses, banks, hospitals and airlines are among those hit hardest after cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike released a flawed software update affecting Microsoft Windows.

Crowdstrike’s CEO apologized for the disruption and said a fix had been released, but admitted it could “take some time” before all systems are back online.

While some air services are starting to return to normal after thousands of flights were cancelled, operators expect some delays and cancellations throughout the weekend.

Many businesses are now facing backlogs and missed orders that can take days to clear.

Health services in the UK, Israel and Germany have also faced problems as some operations were cancelled.

The global turmoil has raised concerns about the vulnerability of the world’s connected technologies and the extent to which a software glitch can have such widespread impact.

The incident began at 19:00 GMT on Thursday, affecting Windows users running CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity software, according to Microsoft, although the severity of the issue only became clear on Friday morning.

But by Friday evening, the problems had been resolved in many parts of the world, with many airports saying that although there were still issues with check-in and payment systems, most flights were back in operation.

And the website Downdetector, which spots websites that may be experiencing technology problems, showed fewer UK sites were down later in the day.

Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz said on X that a bug was found “in a single content update for Windows servers.”

“We are deeply sorry for the impact we have caused to our customers, our guests, anyone affected by this, including our company,” he told NBC.

“Many customers are rebooting their systems and it should be back up and running soon.

“It may take some time for some systems to automatically recover, but our mission is… to ensure every customer is fully restored.”

Microsoft also says multiple restarts may be required, with some users reporting that it may take up to 15 restarts before the issue is resolved.

Additionally, tech experts say Crowdstrike’s fix will have to be applied individually to each affected device.

There will likely be questions raised about Crowdstrike’s influence as one of the largest operators in the cybersecurity market and the wisdom of leaving such a significant part of the industry controlled by a small number of companies.

Crowdstrike shares fell about 12% on Friday, leading declines in rivals SentinelOne and Palo Alto Networks.

These problems were first discovered in Australia and are perhaps most serious in the aviation industry.

Airports are delayed, passengers are stuck in long queues because flights are cancelled or delayed, planes are grounded and passengers are stranded.

Some places have mobilized additional staff to manually check passengers.

As of 18:00 GMT, aviation data from Cirium showed that more than 4,000 flights – or 3.9% of the total – had been cancelled so far on Friday, although this figure may also include flights cancelled for other reasons.

Payment systems, banks and healthcare providers around the world were affected.

It is thought the power outage could have a longer-term impact as companies struggle to pay staff, especially when paid weekly.

Several rail companies have warned of delays, and broadcasters Sky News and ABC Australia have both experienced outages.