Sky News has gone off air due to a global tech outage linked to a flawed anti-viral update from Microsoft Windows. The issue has caused chaos as trains have stopped running, airlines are grounded, and banks and IT firms are affected across the globe.
Impact on Sky News
The broadcaster was forced to play old documentary footage as it scrambled to address the situation early this morning. At 6am, Sky News viewers were greeted with a static message on their TVs apologising for the disruption. The message read: “We apologise for the interruption to this broadcast. We hope to restore the transmission of Sky News shortly.
LIVE UPDATE:
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US Cyber Security Firm CrowdStrike Admits Responsibility
US cyber security company CrowdStrike has admitted responsibility for the error and stated they are “working on it.” A message on the CrowdStrike support page explained that their Falcon Sensor was causing Windows hosts to experience crashes, leading to a bug check/blue screen error.
Widespread Disruption
The outage is affecting companies globally, with online reports from Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, the US, and the UK all indicating they are impacted. Microsoft users worldwide have taken to social media to express their frustration and confusion as their computers shut down.
Airlines and Travel Chaos
The issue has also caused significant travel disruptions. Ryanair posted on its website urging passengers to arrive at airports three hours early, blaming a “third party IT issue, which is outside Ryanair’s control and affects all airlines operating across the network.
American Airlines was forced to ground its flights this morning due to a communication issue, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s status page. Low-cost carriers Frontier Airlines, Allegiant, and SunCountry also reported outages affecting their operations.
Train Services Affected
The Gatwick Express warned travellers of potential last-minute cancellations due to the issues. Their social media post stated: “We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network. Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem. We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks.”
Microsoft’s Response
Microsoft has acknowledged the issue, posting on its social media accounts that it is “investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.
Social Media Reactions
Sky Sports Presenter Jacquie Beltrao posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying: “We’re obviously not on air – we’re trying @SkyNews Breakfast.
Previous Outages
This outage comes just two months after Microsoft was hit with another major issue when Bing.com, the company’s search engine, went down. The problem also affected services such as DuckDuckGo and ChatGPT.
Conclusion
Sky News and Microsoft have been contacted for comment. The situation is still unfolding, and it remains unclear when full functionality will be restored. Businesses and consumers are urged to stay vigilant and follow updates from official sources.
