Microsoft services face global outage severely impacting world | Highlights

Microsoft via an X post said, "The underlying cause has been fixed, however, residual impact is continuing to affect some Microsoft 365 apps and services. We're conducting additional mitigations to provide relief."

Minister of Civil Aviation, Rammohan Naidu says, "I have directed airport authorities and airlines to be compassionate and provide extra seating, water, and food for passengers affected by delays. We understand your concerns and are working tirelessly to ensure your safe and swift travel. Your patience and cooperation are greatly appreciated."

On Microsoft's global outage, MoS Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol says, "The whole world is witnessing this global outage as the cloud services of Microsft are down. In our country, the ground operations of airports have been affected... DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) and MoCA (Ministry of Civil Aviation) are monitoring the situation."

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued an advisory, which says, "It has been reported that Windows hosts related to Crowd strike agent Falcon Sensor, are facing outages and getting crashed due to recent update received in the product. The concerned Windows hosts are experiencing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), related to Falcon Sensor. The issues occurred in the latest update of CrowdStrike and the changes have been reverted by the CrowdStrike Team."

"The whole world is witnessing this global outage as the cloud services of Microsft are down. In our country, the ground operations of airports have been affected... DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) and MoCA (Ministry of Civil Aviation) are monitoring the situation," said MoS Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol.

"We are keeping watch over the situation unfolding and analyzing the number of airports impacted due to the technical glitch that has majorly affected airline systems," said a senior official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

George Kurtz, the CEO of cybersecurity platform CrowdStrike, said the company is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. "This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," he added.

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here, run by GMR group, on Friday put out an advisory saying that due to the global IT outage, the services of some airlines have been impacted. Airport sources said that as many as 23 flights - 12 departures and 11 arrivals - have been cancelled.

Regular passenger-centric activities at the Chennai airport were affected on Friday, official sources said.

"The FAA is closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at US airlines. Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops until the issue is resolved," it said.

Turkish Airlines is experiencing problems with ticketing, check-in, and booking due to a global technical issue in its information systems, it said

Multiple flights have been cancelled at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, all from Indigo, due to the ongoing global outage in Microsoft services.

Traders in oil, gas, power, stocks, currencies and bonds from London to Singapore struggled to operate on Friday as a global cyber outage hampered operations, companies, banks and trading sources said.

LSEG Group, which runs the London Stock Exchange, said its Workspace news and data platform suffered an outage that affected users worldwide due to a "third-party global technical issue".

Ashwini Vaishnaw in an X post said, "MEITY is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage. The reason for this outage has been identified and updates have been released to resolve the issue." Vaishnaw further added, "CERT is issuing a technical advisory. NIC network is not affected."

Russian currency traders told Reuters their software and operating systems were functioning as usual. Russia's largest lender Sberbank said it did not have any problems and all the systems were functioning normally.

Russia's digital development ministry said in a statement that the global outage had highlighted the importance of Russia's import substitution in software development.

Trade in the Russian rouble shifted to an over-the-counter (OTC) market on June 14 after sanctions were imposed on Moscow Exchange and its clearing agent, the National Clearing Centre (NCC), obscuring access to reliable pricing.

The only BBC channel seemingly affected by this morning's events is CBBC - the broadcaster's children's channel.

"Sorry! Something’s gone wrong," a message reads when tuning in. "While we fix it, please go to BBC iPlayer," it added.

Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and Udaipur airports have started manual check-ins. Their system has been hanging for the last one hour. In addition to this, manual check in is also going on at Patna airport. Due to this, there is a long queue inside the airport. Relatives who came to see off the family members at the airport are waiting outside.

Flights to Mumbai from Bhopal airport have been cancelled. 

"Multiple services are continuing to see improvements in availability as our mitigation actions progress," Microsoft 365 Status said in an X post. 

"Customer Advisory: Our digital systems have been impacted temporarily due to the current Microsoft outage resulting in delays. We regret the inconvenience caused and request our guests to plan their travel accordingly," Air India said.

"A global outage with the Navitaire Departure Control System (DCS) has been affecting operations of some airlines across their network, including BLR Airport since 10:40 IST on July 19, 2024. Indigo, Akasa, and SpiceJet in T1 and Air India Express in T2 are among the impacted airlines. The Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE) and Common Use Self Service (CUSS) systems are also experiencing disruptions. In response to this situation, Indigo, Air India Express, SpiceJet and Akasa have taken proactive measures by initiating manual check-ins to ensure minimal disruption to passengers and flight schedules," the advisory from the airport said.  

"#TravelUpdate: Due to infrastructure issues with our service provider, some of our online services, including booking, check-in and manage booking services will be temporarily unavailable. Currently we are following manual check-in and boarding processes at the airports and hence request passengers with immediate travel plans to reach the airport early to check-in at our counters. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and want to assure you that our teams are working with our service provider to resolve the same at the earliest," Akasa Airlines said via Twitter.

"#TravelUpdate: Vistara flights will be departing from Terminal 02, and the check-in counters will be located at row 12 at Singapore Airport, effective July 2nd, 2024. Customers are advised to plan their travel accordingly. Thank you," Vistara Airlines said in an X post.

South China Morning Post in Hong Kong is reporting that an IT breakdown has left the international airport in "chaos".  It says check-in is being done manually but flights are still taking off. The airport has started emergency procedures to keep flights moving.

The worldwide outage was also affecting Channel 10 and ABC in Australia, with Sky News Australia also down. In addition to this, there were delays at Australian airports and Virgin Airlines was experiencing problems. 

The emergency 911 lines in the US state of Alaska have gone down, according to the state troopers service. 

"Due to a nationwide technology-related outage, many 911 and non-emergency call centres are not working correctly across the State of Alaska," a statement read. 

It also issued other numbers which can be called if you are in need of assistance.

Delhi Airport tweets, "Due to the global IT issue, some of the services at the Delhi Airport were temporarily impacted. We are closely working with all our stakeholders to minimise the inconvenience to our flyers. Passengers are requested to be in touch with the airline concerned or the help desk on ground for updated flight information."

Automated boarding scanners at UK's Edinburgh Airport are offline, a witness from the Reuters news agency says. 

Edinburgh Airport was checking boarding passes manually, the witness said.

We don't have an official statement from the airport just yet.

The London Stock Exchange is among the businesses that have been affected by the global outage of IT systems around the world.

A statement posted on the exchange's website early this morning said that a technical issue was being investigated with the publication of RNS – the exchange's Regulatory News Service – announcements.

It said: "RNS news service is currently experiencing a 3rd party global technical issue, preventing news from being published on www.londonstockexchange.com. Technical teams are working to restore the service. Other services across the Group, including London Stock Exchange, continue to operate as normal."

 Airports, businesses and broadcasters including Sky News experiencing issues worldwide. Planes have been grounded as several airports are hit by a global IT outage, with Windows PCs shutting down and broadcasters and business also taken offline.

#ImportantUpdate: We're currently facing a technical issue in providing updates on flight disruptions. Our team is actively working to resolve this issue. We regret for any inconvenience caused and will update you once the issue is resolved. Thank you for your patience and co-operation.