Airports in several countries, including Spain, woke up to chaos on Friday. A computer failure caused AENA’s systems to go dark, affecting the check-in and traveller information software, among others. Everything points to the problem being triggered by an update to a cybersecurity programme by the American firm CrowdStrike, a Microsoft supplier. An incompatibility caused the Windows operating system, the most widely used in the world, to not work correctly and drag down other programmes with it. The hypothesis of a cyberattack would, in principle, be ruled out.
In the absence of official confirmation, speculation is that Windows has crashed as a result of an update to one of the most powerful antivirus programs on the market, which is common among large corporations and is a Microsoft supplier, designed by the American cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, as reported by specialized media. An update to the antivirus has caused a crash in Windows, the most widely used operating system in the world, which has been noticed on computers around the world. Microsoft is currently investigating the incident, according to company sources. CrowdStrike has not immediately responded to requests for information.
The failure is causing problems for many companies beyond the airline sector: also in the financial, media and other industries. According to Downdetector picks upa website that monitors outages, has been reporting sudden spikes in incidents on various websites that include Microsoft applications since last night. Vueling, BBVA, Unicaja, Correos, Movistar, Amazon and Google are other websites that have reported problems. The first incidents were detected in the United States and have spread to different parts of the world. According to the Downdetector platform, the peak of reported incidents would have occurred after 9.30 am, Spanish peninsular time.
Microsoft Azure, the cloud computing platform for managing applications and services, has confirmed on social media that problems were being reported and that they were investigating and working on resolving them. This interruption of the software linked to Microsoft systems has caused, in the case of Spain, alterations to the AENA systems and to the airports in the network, which they have already warned could cause delays. Meanwhile, operations are being carried out with manual systems, according to AENA and confirmed by airlines such as Iberia. The same has happened in other countries.
The crisis extends far beyond Spanish airports and also affects transport infrastructures in other countries, railway systems, banks, payment methods, emergency services and even public administrations. The Medical Emergency System (SEM) of Catalonia, for example, has asked citizens on Friday to only call the 061 Salut Respon and the 112 emergency telephone number in the event of medical emergencies. Air traffic has been suspended due to these technical problems in airports around the world, with such failures being recorded in countries such as Australia, Poland, India, Germany and the United Kingdom. The major US airlines (Delta, United and American Airlines) have also reported problems, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, and the low-cost airline Ryanair has asked passengers to arrive at airports three hours early. In the UK, the London Stock Exchange and Sky TV channel reported disruptions on Friday and the UK’s largest rail company, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), warned passengers to expect disruption due to “widespread problems”.
(Breaking news. Update coming soon)
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