Major IT outage that grounded planes not linked to cyber attack

A mass IT outage affecting airlines this morning (19 July 2024) was not caused by a cyber attack.

That was according to IT security firm Crowdstrike chief executive George Kurtz, who said that a “defect” was behind the issues and that a fix had been found.

Several planes have been grounded due to the IT issues, with airports warning of longer wait times.

The delays in flights could result in insurers getting more claims.

It has now been revealed that the incident was to do with an update, which affected Windows hosts.

Kurtz said: “Crowdstrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.

“Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted.

“This is not a security incident or cyber attack.

“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

Claims

Back in August 2023, UK passengers were hit with flight delays and cancellations due to a technical failure that meant controllers were not able to automatically process flight plans.

Blink Parametric chief executive Sid Mouncey said at the time that he saw a “surge in claims activity” as a result.

Speaking about the incident today, Dan Carr, head of cyber at Ariel Re, said technology and the widespread impact of its disruption ”is huge and is likely to only get more risky as our use of such technology increases”.

”Similarly, the market has mirrored that trend to consume security services in a similar fashion,” he added.

”When those two services intersect, or two incidents relate - as may be the case here - the potential for significant catastrophe loss is huge.

“The market has begun to provide specific solutions to cater for these risks in recent years, but the recent rise of systemic events shows we need to go further and faster.”