A global cyber attack appears to be underway
Reports are circulating of a widespread Windows outage that is taking down systems at emergency services, banks, airports and more.
Windows machines are reportedly failing to boot, with unconfirmed reports suggesting the issue is caused by software from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike.
The Down Detector website shows a sharp increase in reports of disrupted services, including those from Microsoft, Visa, Ryanair and many other companies, as shown below:
Down Detector indicates widespread attack is underway
Troy Hunt, creator of the website HaveIBeenPwned, also reported on X that he sees many reports of Windows PCs suffering from the infamous Blue Screen of Death, where they refuse to boot.
“Something super weird is happening right now: I’ve just been called by several totally different media outlets in the last few minutes, all with Windows machines suddenly BSoD’ing (Blue Screen of Death),” he posted.
There are reports of this problem in the US, India, Japan and many other countries around the world. Attempts to connect to two UK banks this morning failed. Flights are also reportedly being suspended at several airports around the world.
US emergency services computers also appear to be affected by the problem. One commenter wrote on Hacker News: “My entire emergency room went down because of this. It’s really scary when ambulances come and try to stabilize a heart attack. 911 is also down in Oregon.”
Rail services in the UK are being affected by the outage. “We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our network,” the Southern Railway team, which operates many rail services in the south of England, told X.
“We are unable to access driver diagrams at some locations, which may result in potential cancellations at short notice, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks.”
It is not yet clear whether this is a cyberattack or another glitch. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Crowdstrike support engineers have acknowledged that the issue was with their software and have rolled back an update that appeared to be causing the problem.
This is a breaking news story. More information to follow.