The computers of companies and institutions worldwide have gone down, causing problems for many systems – including in Belgium. The presumed cause is a glitch that occurred after a security update by cyber security firm CrowdStrike.
A security update by CrowdStrike has left Windows computers especially affected, leaving them with blue screens that prevent them from starting up.
Around the world, reports of severe computer problems at several major companies and institutions are coming in. In Australia and the United States, banks, media companies and airlines have been affected.
British TV channel Sky News was unable to broadcast for a while and the London Stock Exchange is experiencing outages. No flights are currently leaving Berlin Airport or Schiphol in Amsterdam, and Sydney Airport is affected as well.
On its website, Microsoft speaks of a "degradation" of its cloud service offering. "Users may not have access to several Microsoft 365 apps and services." Among others, Microsoft still reports problems with data tools PowerBI and Fabric, as well as with video conferencing service Teams.
In the meantime, problems have reportedly been solved for the Intune management tool, OneDrive cloud storage service and SharePoint information sharing service, among others. Problems were also initially reported with cloud platform Microsoft Azure, but these too have reportedly been fixed.
SNCB and Brussels Airport
In Belgium, national railway operator SNCB was among those affected, but the company is working hard to solve the problems. The issues do not affect train traffic itself, but all digital applications are affected: ticket purchases in the app as well as up-to-date travel information are unavailable for the time being.
"In the stations, there are the screens and the audio announcements to indicate and announce possible changes, digitally this is not yet possible for the time being," the company said. "Travellers who cannot buy a valid ticket via the app as a result can contact the train conductor."
At Brussels Airport, the impact of the global computer malfunction remains relatively limited on Friday morning, spokesperson Ihsane Chioua Lekhli told Belga News Agency. At Charleroi Airport, there were brief issues as well. As the check-in system runs on Microsoft, employees had to manually perform check-in for a while – causing long queues and even blockages in Terminal 1 of the airport.
However, the problems with the use of the software were partially resolved by around 10:00, as other software could be used. The delays in operations caused minimal flight delays. However, some passengers who arrived late may have missed a flight. "This is data that only the airlines have. But we are not ruling it out on our side."
Airlines, hospitals
Several airlines around the world have reported problems but the disruption at Brussels Airport remains limited for now. "Our check-in system runs on Microsoft, but we have a fallback system. However, here and there, some longer waiting times are possible."
Airlines such as American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines have also reported problems. On its website, Brussels Airlines reports that users of the site or the app may face technical problems loading their profile or retrieving their booking.
Brussels Airlines spokesperson Nico Cardone reported that "all the operational systems are working" and that "check-in and boarding of our flights is proceeding normally. However, as some airports are also affected by the IT problems, there may be disruption on some specific flights."
In security sectors, there are currently "no significant problems," said Yves Stevens of the National Crisis Centre, which is still assessing the possible impact of the global computer outage in our country.
"Currently, and I stress currently, we do not yet have any reports of significant problems in the security sectors and our critical infrastructure (such as power plants or transport sector, for example). The emergency centres are also still working."
The Crisis Centre has, however, been informed of problems at two hospitals, which has since been confirmed by the Public Health Ministry. The authorities are not communicating about which hospitals are affected for now.
"There are two hospitals that have reported problems. But all hospitals have an ICT emergency plan. This is now also being used in the affected hospitals," said Health Ministry spokesperson Annelies Wynant. "There is no impact on care. A decision has been made to temporarily transport new patients who need urgent medical assistance to other hospitals."
