KUALA LUMPUR July 19 — Chaos ensued following a global IT outage that has affecting many institutions including in Malaysia, among others taking banks offline and grounding flights in several countries.
Here’s the latest update:
- The outage was caused by thousands of Windows machine experiencing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).
- The issue was reportedly caused by a faulty update from cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike. A fix has been deployed.
- National Cyber Security Agency said: "The impact on Malaysia is considerable; it has caused delays, operational challenges across multiple sectors, affecting businesses and public.”
In Malaysia, here are the services affected:
- There have been some reports of service slow-down at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) causing long queues especially in Terminal 2.
- Malaysia Airports said it remains unaffected but some of its airline partners are experiencing disruptions.
- Malaysian Aviation Group said flight schedules for Malaysia Airlines and Firefly remain unaffected, and no flights have been cancelled.
- However, Firefly Airlines reported outage with its booking system.
- Railway operator KTM is also currently facing disruption with its ticketing and customer service system.
- AirAsia previously reported that its reservation and check-in system were affected, but flights were unaffected.
You can find a full list here.
Why were air travel were so susceptible and affected by this issue? According to Reuters:
What is happening right now in KLIA? The chaos is real, as Malay Mail journalist Muhammad Yusry reported:
Some users have also posted their experience on social media:
What is Crowdstrike?
- CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity firm that provides protection, threat intelligence, and cyberattack response services.
- It is widely used to manage the security of Windows PCs and servers by business firms.
- The rogue update is believed to have sent Windows servers, PCs, laptops and computer terminals into a "death spiral of reboots" — causing the BSOD showing the message "DRIVER_OVERRAN_STACK_BUFFER"
According to the company in a statement:
Déjà vu? KLIA previously faced a similar outage in August 2019, caused by a massive network outage that lasted close to five days.
Airport functions that were affected included the credit card system, internet connection, flight check-in, baggage handling, flight information display systems and MYairports mobile application.
The Transport Ministry later said it did not find any element pointing to cyberattacks, and it was due to a 21-year-old Core Network Switches system that had not been upgraded since operations began in 1998.
Read more to find out what is happening right now:
- Malaysia Airports services, Malaysia Airlines unaffected by global IT outage, AirAsia flights running but in-house system offline
- Global IT outage hits KLIA, long queues as passengers forced to check-in manually while KLIA Express app and ticketing down
- Major US airlines ground all flights over ‘communication issue’, says aviation authority
- Global IT meltdown disrupts flights, TV broadcasts and telecoms
- Traders from London to Singapore struggle as cyber outage disrupts business
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