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Saturday, July 20th, 2024

A Faulty Software Update Causes Havoc Worldwide For Airlines, Hospitals And Governments

Author:     CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY, ELAINE KURTENBACH, DAVID McHUGH and HALELUYA HADERO
Source:     HuffPost / Associate Press
Publication Date:     Jul 19, 2024 | 03:50 AM EDT
 Link: A Faulty Software Update Causes Havoc Worldwide For Airlines, Hospitals And Governments
Stephan:  

You may have been affected by this technological havoc Friday, or you may not even know it occurred. I am publishing this report because it illustrates how vulnerable the world is to the electronic networks. This is the second vulnerability of 21st century civilizations. The first is the spewing of misinformation and AI generated fake information. The United States, as well as other nations, is not dealing appropriately with either weakness, and it is changing human societies all over the world.

A traveler checks flight information at Ronald Regan Washington National Airport on July 19, 2024 in Washington, DC. Credit: Nathan Howard / Getty

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — A faulty software update caused technological havoc worldwide on Friday, grounding flights, knocking down some financial companies and news outlets, and disrupting hospitals, small businesses and government offices.

The breadth of the outages highlighted the fragility of a digitized world dependent on just a few providers for key computing services.

The trouble was sparked by an update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and only affected its customers running Microsoft Windows, the world’s most popular operating system for personal computers. It was not the result of hacking or a cyberattack, according to CrowdStrike, which apologized and said a fix was on the way.

Businesses and governments worldwide experienced hourslong disruptions — their computer monitors glowing blue with error messages — and they scrambled to deal with the fallout. CrowdStrike’s CEO said some of their systems will require time-consuming manual fixes.

Thousands of flights were canceled and tens of thousands were delayed, leading to long lines […]

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1 Comment

  1. RevDean on Saturday, July 20, 2024 at 1:07 pm

    My debit card was hacked yesterday and my bank has to send me a new one now! It is A pain in the ass waiting for the new card! I has ten hits against my card which I had to combat 1 by 1 and finally determined to use checks, instead of the card, where I can.