New Delhi. Technology disruptions hit Windows-powered devices across the world, including India, on Friday as an update to a third-party software platform linked to Microsoft affected companies in aviation, media and financial services, and also affected the operations of many other companies. It also exposed the limitations of some companies’ dependence on software.
According to cyber security company ‘CrowdStrike’, this problem is not believed to be caused by any security glitch or cyber attack.
Microsoft said it is aware of a problem affecting Windows-powered devices due to an ‘update’ to a third-party software platform. After the crisis persisted for several hours, the technology company has said that it is gradually fixing the problem affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services. The crisis disrupted airline operations in India, affecting thousands of people.
Many airlines issued statements on the social media platform ‘X’ saying that they are following the check-in and boarding process manually. They reported delays due to technical problems. IndiGo, SpiceJet and Akasa faced disruptions in online check-in and boarding processes on their networks, due to which they had to work through ‘offline’ medium.
Civil Aviation Minister K Ramamohan Naidu assured passengers that his ministry and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) were actively handling the situation through offline channels to ensure minimum disruption. IndiGo said on X, “Our systems are currently affected by a Microsoft outage which is affecting other airlines as well. During this time, bookings, check-in, access to boarding passes and some flights may also be affected.”
Budget airline Akasa said, “Some online services, including booking, check-in and booking management services, will be temporarily unavailable due to infrastructure problems with our service provider. We are currently following ‘offline’ check-in and boarding processes at airports.” SpiceJet said it is facing technical challenges with its service provider, affecting online services including booking, check-in and managing booking functionalities. In such a situation, the airline has started ‘offline’ check-in and boarding process at all airports.
Due to this disruption, at least nine flights of Indigo Airlines were cancelled in Raipur. An official said that at least 25 flights to and from Kolkata were cancelled. Regular passenger service activities were disrupted at Chennai airport.
Information Technology (IT) Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said his ministry is in touch with Microsoft and the NIC network is not affected by the disruption. On the social media platform ‘X’, Vaishnav said that the cause of the disruption has been identified and ‘updates’ have been released to resolve the issue.
CERT-In, a computer emergency response team formed under the Ministry of Information Technology, has issued an advisory on the disruption in Microsoft services due to the ‘CrowdStrike update’, calling it a ‘critical’ problem. CERT-In said in its advisory, “It has been reported that the Windows host related to the CrowdStrike agent ‘Falcon Sensor’ is facing disruption and Windows is crashing due to the recent update. The related Windows system is facing ‘Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)’ related to Falcon Sensor.” Indian banks and payment systems remained unaffected by the Microsoft crisis. However, this crisis affected financial services companies worldwide.
SBI Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara told PTI-Bhasha, “We are all fine.” He said this when asked about the impact of the crisis on operations. Dilip Asbe, Chief Executive Officer of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), said that overall the country’s payment system, including the Unified Payments Interface, has remained unaffected. HDFC Bank, one of the big private sector banks, also said that the crisis has not affected it.
Ramesh Lakshminarayanan, group head of information technology at HDFC Bank, said, “Our systems are unaffected by the global crisis. There is no impact on banking operations.” Officials at ICICI Bank and Axis Bank also said that their systems are working fine and there is no impact of the crisis.
The two major Indian stock exchanges, NSE and BSE, said they were not impacted by the disruption in Microsoft services.
An NSE spokesperson said in a statement, “NSE (National Stock Exchange) and NCL (NSE Clearing Limited) are operating normally today.” A BSE spokesperson said that the exchange has not been affected due to the problem in Microsoft. Operations are going on normally.
At the same time, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that there was a minor disruption in the functioning of 10 banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) of the country, which has either been resolved or is being resolved. In a statement issued on this problem, the Reserve Bank said that it has assessed the impact of this widespread technical disruption on its regulated entities. The crisis affected several brokerages including 5Paisa, IIFL Securities and Angel One. Other brokers affected by the widespread global computer crisis include Motilal Oswal and Edelweiss Mutual Fund.
The country’s leading automobile manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India said that it was partially affected due to the global disruption of Microsoft systems and production and supply of vehicles were disrupted for some time. However, Maruti Suzuki said that it has been able to recover from this disruption and resume its operations. Microsoft 365 posted on ‘X’ that the company is working to send the affected traffic to alternative systems to reduce the adverse impact as quickly as possible. This problem affected Microsoft 365 apps and services.
A Microsoft spokesman said, “We hope to resolve this issue soon.” Internet outage monitoring website Downdetector said that Visa, ADT Security and Amazon as well as various airlines including American Airlines and Delta were affected. News organizations in Australia reported that computer systems at airlines, telecommunications services, banks and media institutions were not functioning.
Airlines in the US, Britain and Europe reported problems, and some New Zealand banks said their operations were affected. New Zealand’s acting Prime Minister David Seymour said the country’s officials were “working quickly to understand the potential implications” of the global problem. “I have not yet received any reports that indicate these issues are related to malicious cybersecurity activity,” Seymour wrote. Israel’s Cyber Directorate said Israel was also affected by the global problem and that the reason for it was a problem with CrowdStrike. The problem has also affected post offices and hospitals there.
In the US, the FAA said all airlines, including United, American, Delta and Allegiant, have suspended operations.
Computer problems are disrupting airlines, railways and television stations in the United Kingdom. Budget airline Ryanair, train services TransPennine Express and Govia Thameslink Railway and Sky News have also been affected.
Ryanair said, “We are currently experiencing disruptions across the network due to a technology disruption that is beyond our control. We advise all passengers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before their scheduled departure time.”
Edinburgh Airport said a system glitch had caused longer-than-usual wait times. London’s Stansted Airport said some airline check-in services were being completed manually but flights were not currently operating. Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport said on its website that the disruption was having a “widespread impact” on flights. In Germany, Berlin Airport said on Friday morning that “due to a technical fault, check-in will be delayed.” At Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport, some flights to the US were delayed, while others were unaffected.