At airports and ports around the world, passenger and freight processing is starting up again after the global IT outage. However, some passengers must still expect delays.
After a serious IT glitch that affected airlines, hospitals and television stations around the world, the situation is gradually returning to normal in many countries. Several airlines in the USA and Asia announced that they had resumed operations. At Berlin Airport, too, check-in was “running smoothly” again, a BER spokesperson told the AFP news agency when asked.
According to Thailand's national airport director Keerati Kitmanawat, there are currently “no long queues at the airports like we experienced yesterday.” In Australia, too, operations were largely back to normal, although Sydney Airport was still reporting flight delays.
Check-in services have been restored at airports in Hong Kong and South Korea, and check-in is now largely back to normal in India, Indonesia and at Changi Airport in Singapore.
Individual airports are still experiencing difficulties with check-in and security checks. For example, passengers at the capital's BER airport are not yet able to use the self-service check-ins again, a BER spokesperson said. Due to yesterday's exceptional situation, many airlines also have their planes and cabin crew in the wrong place, which is temporarily leading to some delays in processes.
Search for alternatives
In the UK, the breakdown on the first day of school holidays prompted many people to consider alternative flights. Hundreds of passengers were reported at the port of Dover early in the morning, trying to get from the UK to France via the main ferry route.
Kent County Council warned against travelling to the ferry port or Eurotunnel without a reservation. “Both Dover ferries and the car train are not accepting unregistered passengers today. Please book in advance before travelling to the port,” said the message on X.
Around 8.5 million Microsoft devices affected
The glitch hit companies around the world that use Microsoft's Windows operating system on Friday. According to the US cybersecurity company Crowdstrike, the cause was a faulty update to its security program Falcon. After an analysis, Microsoft announced that around 8.5 million devices were affected. This was less than one percent of all Windows devices, the US software company emphasized.
But the impact was enormous: airlines and airports around the world had IT problems, so that some take-offs and landings had to be cancelled. Hospitals had to postpone operations, television stations could not broadcast, cash register systems in supermarkets failed. The full extent of the disruption is not yet known.
Warning about scammers
In response to the global IT failure, experts now expect that many people will want to better protect their computers. However, this could also be exploited by cyber criminals. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) warned of an increase in fraudulent phishing and scam attempts.
In addition to the BSI, British and Australian authorities also warned that criminals could exploit the uncertainty caused by the glitch.
“Breakdown goes down in history”
The company Crowdstrike announced that it had found a solution to the problem. Company boss George Kurtz told the US news channel CNBC that he wanted to “personally apologize to every organization, every group and every person who was affected.” It could take a few days until operations are back to normal.
According to cybersecurity expert Junade Ali from the British Engineering and Technology Association, the scale of the outage is “unprecedented”. The glitch will “undoubtedly go down in history”. According to him, the last time a similar major outage occurred was in 2017.
