Businesses and institutions around the world have been knocked offline after a major IT outage.
Trains and airports were hard hit, with Britain’s biggest train company, the parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern, warning passengers to expect disruption due to “widespread IT issues”.
Ryanair was among the major UK airlines saying its flights were being disrupted by the outage, while Sky News was knocked off-air on Friday morning.
Banks, supermarkets and other major institutions across the globe also reported computer issues, with thousands of GP practices across England struggling to book appointments and issue prescriptions.
Meanwhile, all flights from several major US airlines, including Delta, United and American Airlines, were grounded due to a “communication issue.”
The issue was caused by a flawed update from the US cyber security company CrowdStrike, prompting problems on Windows computers.
Microsoft said the underlying cause for outage has been fixed, but the residual impact of cybersecurity outages are continuing.