On Friday, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said a fix for the issue affecting Windows machines had been issued but the knock-on effects continued to be felt this weekend
The IT outage that has caused disruption across the world will have "lingering effects", a chartered security professional has said.
The world continues to be reeling from the global IT problems caused by a faulty CrowdStrike update. Planes were grounded, GP surgeries were forced to close and shops were left unable to take payments after the bug brought computer systems around the world crashing down.
On Friday, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike confirmed the issue was related to to an update file sent to Windows machines, and said that a fix had now been issued. However, the knock-on effects continued to be felt this weekend, as more misery greeted passengers at airport terminals and some unfortunate workers left without their monthly payslip.
James Bore told Sky News: “There are definitely going to be lingering effects. The largest companies and the ones with most critical services, they are going to have thrown everything they can at fixing it.
“But for other companies where they don’t have as many people to put hands on keyboard – because that’s the key thing – each fix requires a manual intervention with the computer, and we’re talking millions of computers.
“If you’ve only got one IT person in the company and 2000 employees – it’s not going to be fixed overnight. That’s going to be weeks of work for that person just travelling around or getting everyone to come in and sort out their laptops.”
Thought the worst of the crisis is now thought to be over, airports are still asking passengers to check for potential disruption that could affect their flights before they travel. London Gatwick - which saw a wave of flight cancellations and delays yesterday on one of the busiest days of the year - says disruption could roll over into Saturday.
It comes as thousands of families start to embark on summer holidays amid the end of the academic year for many schools. Travel association Abta urged holidaymakers to check with providers if there are “any extra steps” they may need to take.
CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz said he was “deeply sorry” for the situation and said CrowdStrike was “actively working” with those impacted. Industry expert Adam Leon Smith of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, warned it could take “weeks” for all computers and systems to be fully restored, while Mr Kurtz said it would take “some time”.
Experts are calling it the biggest IT outage in history. Millions of users around the world have been impacted. It extends from laptops to smartphones to whole computer systems – any connected to a corporate network. Customers of Microsoft’s cloud-based service Azure also reported issues.
Businesses in Australia were the first to report issues, with retailers Woolworths and 7-Eleven among those hit. Sydney Airport flagged a “global technical outage”. Soon, firms and organisations around the world were being impacted too.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
