Paper money is the only reliable thing: if you switch to electronic money, then another IT system failure will kill you by eliminating the help you need

 

"On Friday, IT systems were reported to have malfunctioned around the world, which affected major airlines, banks, or media companies. It is said that the incident was caused by malfunctions experienced by the cyber security company CrowdStrike and the Microsoft cloud. Some IT malfunctions are recorded in Lithuania by Ryanair " and Wizzair service companies, but there should be no serious impact on passengers.

 

 

 

 According to The New York Times (NYT), at least three US airlines - American, United and Delta - temporarily suspended all flights scheduled for Friday due to an IT system failure.

 

 

 

 Problems are also recorded at Sydney Airport, one of Australia's main transportation hubs. Pictures posted online show long queues at Sydney Airport. His administration told the AFP news agency that some airlines and terminal services had been disrupted.

 

 

 

 "The global technological disruption has affected some flights and terminal services," the airport's account on the X social network states. - Planes are currently both landing and taking off, but there may be flight delays in the evening."

 

 

 

 As the BBC writes, Amsterdam's Schiphol International Airport, one of Europe's airports with the largest number of flights, is also reporting disruptions.

 

 

 

 Tadas Vasiliauskas, the press representative of Lithuanian airports, VŽ says that the ground service companies serving Wizzair and Ryanair in Lithuania have confirmed that there are "certain disruptions in the IT systems", but there should be no serious impact on passengers.

 

 

 

 "Due to this temporary disruption, passenger check-ins will be free of charge at the airport. Recommendation for passengers - to arrive at the usual time before the flight, i.e. two hours before the flight. Earlier arrival is currently not necessary", says T. Vasiliauskas.

 

 

 

 Olga Malaškevičienė, a representative of LTG Link, the company that organizes passenger transport by trains in Lithuania, told BNS that the company does not record information system malfunctions either, its activities are going on as usual. The Association of Lithuanian Banks VŽ stated that it has no information about malfunctions of its members and stated that the systems of credit institutions belonging to the association are operating normally.

 

 

 

 CNBC writes that NBC Universal, the company that controls this media outlet, also experienced disruptions, as a result of an outage on Friday morning, the British television channel Sky News could not broadcast. Later, as The Guardian wrote, Sky News returned to the air, but continues to work with severe restrictions and minimal capacity.

 

 

 

 The London Stock Exchange says it is unable to publish news on its website due to IT problems.

 

 

 

 The National Cyber ​​Security Center (NKSC) states that it has no information about disruptions of critical services in Lithuania, although Liudas Ališauskas, head of the NKSC, told reporters on Friday that the impact of this disruption on Lithuanian institutions "may yet become apparent"

 

 

 

 The problem is the update

 

 

 

 The cause, exact nature and extent of the disruption are still unclear. Microsoft has indicated in its announcements that the situation is improving, but there are still reports of increasing disruptions around the world.

 

 

 

 As soon as the news of IT systems being down en masse appeared, fingers began to be pointed at Crowdstrike: this company develops antivirus software, the update of which could "break" computers with the Windows operating system.

 

 

 

 "We are aware of a technical issue with CrowdStrike that has affected multiple carriers," American Airlines said in a statement sent to ABC News. "We are working with CrowdStrike to resolve this issue as soon as possible and apologize to our customers for any inconvenience."

 

 

 

 The company's CrowdStrike software is widely used by businesses around the world. 

 

 

 

 

Representatives of this company have not yet responded to media requests for comment, while Microsoft, as the NYT writes, refused to comment on the CrowdStrike disruptions.

 

 

 

 NKSC recommends that all organizations using Falcon Crowdstrike open source software revert to a previous version.

 

 

 

 According to L. Ališauskas, this situation shows that organizations should learn how to install and test updates.

 

 

 

 “Before installing updates to systems that manage electricity or water or provide other critical services, those updates must be tested in a dedicated secure environment. If the updates did not cause such consequences as this update has now caused, only then those updates are installed in the production environment", said the head of the NKSC.

 

 

 

 Because of this situation, CrowdStrike stock at the start of the trading session in New York fell about 20%, Microsoft - 2.5%."