Microsoft IT outage live: Travellers still stranded as experts warn problem is likely to happen again

A global IT outage is “likely” to occur again unless governments and industry work together to “design out” technological flaws, a leading cyber expert has said.

Professor Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said “the worst” of the global IT outage was over but countries would “have to learn to cope” with future flaws.

The founding chief executive of the NCSC told Sky News: “The worst of this is over because the nature of the crisis was such that it went very badly wrong, very quickly. It was spotted quite quickly and, essentially, it was turned off.”

Sam Hall reports:

Delta Air Lines struggled on Sunday to restore normal operations after last week’s crippling global cyber outage, canceling 1,250 flights beyond the 3,500 it had already scrapped.

The issue has stranded thousands of Delta travelers across the United States, with some having to rent cars to drive hundreds of miles while others could have to wait days for new flights or cancel trips altogether.

The Atlanta-based airline, which canceled a third of its schedule and delayed another 1,700 flights or 44%, according to FlightAware, is battling operational issues after the outage hit its crew tracking system.

Delta has offered no timetable for resumption of normal operations and has already canceled another 305 flights for Monday, the flight tracking website said. Its total of canceled flights since Friday now stands at more than 5,000.

A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike triggered system problems for Microsoft customers, including many airlines, on Friday.

Although other U.S. airlines have largely recovered, Delta has struggled to return to normal. United Airlines canceled 9% - or 266 - of Sunday’s flights, the second most among carriers.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the issue affected its Microsoft Windows systems, snarling a critical application.

“In particular one of our crew tracking-related tools was affected and unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system shutdown,” Bastian told customers in an email.

In a separate note, he told employees that Delta would continue to “tactically adjust” schedules to ensure safety.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke with Bastian, according to an official, reminding him of the carrier’s responsibilities to customers and the department’s enforcement role.

“I will ensure that our department supports Delta passengers by enforcing all applicable passenger protections,” Buttigieg said in a statement to Reuters, adding that the department had received hundreds of complaints.

“No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours.”

CrowdStrike said a significant number of the 8.5 million affected Microsoft devices were back online.

The NHS and pharmacies have warned that they will still be slower than usual as they look to recover from the problems last week. But the health service has told people affected to still come in for their appointments as usual, unless they are told otherwise.

Read the full story here.

Some 100,000 travellers were affected by the problems over the weekend, Simon Calder reports. Many of those are still stuck trying to reach their destinations, he says.

You can read the full story here.

Delta Air Lines faced further operational issues on Sunday with over a thousand flights cancelled for the third straight day beyond the 3,500 the airlines had previously scrapped.

A Microsoft outage on Friday left thousands of Delta travellers stranded across the US this weekend as the global IT outage affected the airline company’s crew tracking system.

“In particular one of our crew tracking-related tools was affected and unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system shutdown,” Delta chief Ed Bastian told customers.

Delta has not yet offered any timetable for resuming normal operations with over 300 flights cancelled for Monday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain.

Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and even CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage.

“We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives.”

David Koenig and Isabella O'Malley report:

System failure caused by the global IT outage reportedly led to a massive grid-lock at the US-Mexico border with even approved Border Protection vehicles stranded for about 90 minutes.

Officials turned to workarounds like colour-coded cards to streamline processes, San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

The outage also led to employees working with US government agencies missing work at the US border.

“Due to the global Windows outage, some of our staff are experiencing major delays getting across the border to come to work. This may result in missed or delayed service,” the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System posted on X.

CrowdStrike said a significant number of the over 8.5 million devices affected by last week’s botched software update are back online, Reuters reported.

Over the weekend, Microsoft deployed hundreds of its engineers to help its customers restore services after the global IT outage caused by its cyber security partner CrowdStrike.

Microsoft said over 8.5 million devices were affected by the outage, which led to airlines, banks, call centers, transportation and healthcare systems struggling worldwide.

CrowdStrike said the outage was caused by a defect in an update to its “Falcon” cybersecurity defence software for Windows hosts.