Worldwide, computers are saying no. GPs can’t access appointments and medical records, banking apps have been knocked offline, flights are grounded, laptops won’t work. Technology across Europe and America has been toppled by what appears to be a glitch in a software update for some popular anti-virus software from a company called CrowdStrike. ‘Biggest IT fail ever,’ tweeted Elon Musk.
‘CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,’ George Kurtz, CrowdStrike’s CEO, said in a statement this morning. ‘Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.’
The trouble is that the damage is already done. In the US, Delta Airlines has paused all of its flights. The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation has cancelled cancer treatments. Morrisons and Waitrose are having payment problems.
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