Republicans who lead the House Homeland Security committee said Monday they want answers soon [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

U.S. House leaders are calling on CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz to testify to Congress about the cybersecurity company’s role in sparking the widespread tech outage that grounded flights, knocked banks and hospital systems offline and affected services around the world.

CrowdStrike said this week a “significant number” of the millions of computers that crashed on Friday, causing global disruptions, are back in operation as its customers and regulators await a more detailed explanation of what went wrong.

Republicans who lead the House Homeland Security committee said Monday they want those answers soon.

“While we appreciate CrowdStrike’s response and coordination with stakeholders, we cannot ignore the magnitude of this incident, which some have claimed is the largest IT outage in history,” said a letter to Kurtz from Rep. Mark E. Green of Tennessee and Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York.

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They added that Americans “deserve to know in detail how this incident happened and the mitigation steps CrowdStrike is taking.”

A defective software update sent by CrowdStrike to its customers disrupted airlines, banks, hospitals and other critical services Friday, affecting about 8.5 million machines running Microsoft’s Windows operating system. The painstaking work of fixing it has often required a company’s IT crew to manually delete files on affected machines.

CrowdStrike said late Sunday in a blog post that it was starting to implement a new technique to accelerate remediation of the problem. It also said in a brief statement Monday that it is actively in contact with congressional committees.

Shares of the Texas-based cybersecurity company have dropped more than 20% since the meltdown, knocking off billions of dollars in market value.

The scope of the disruptions has also caught the attention of government regulators, including antitrust enforcers, though it remains to be seen if they take action against the company.

“All too often these days, a single glitch results in a system-wide outage, affecting industries from healthcare and airlines to banks and auto-dealers,” said Lina Khan, chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, in a Sunday post on the social media platform X. “Millions of people and businesses pay the price. These incidents reveal how concentration can create fragile systems.”

New Delhi:
Airlines, banks and businesses across the world were scrambling today to deal with one of the biggest IT crashes in recent years, caused by an update to an antivirus program. The US grounded all planes briefly; flights in other nations were affected.

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New Delhi:

The global Microsoft outage has affected 90 per cent flights operating from Bengaluru airport’s Terminal 1, sources have said. IndiGo airlines officials said the situation is likely to continue till midnight. Twenty-six flights have been cancelled in Terminal 1 and 2, most of them IndiGo flights.

When the outage began, other airlines such as Air India Express, SpiceJet, and Akasa began checking in passengers manually at Bengaluru airport, issuing handwritten boarding passes.

Passengers at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) had a harrowing time following the disruption in flight services.

“Flights are cancelled due to the cascading effect of the worldwide travel system outage, beyond our control. The option to rebook/claim a refund is temporarily unavailable…” IndiGo said in a post on X.

Some services at Delhi airport were also affected.

Due to the global IT issue, some of the services at the Delhi Airport were temporarily impacted.

We are closely working with all our stakeholders to minimise the inconvenience to our flyers.

— Delhi Airport (@DelhiAirport) July 19, 2024

Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu has assured passengers that the ministry and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) are actively managing the situation using manual methods to ensure minimal disruption.

“I have directed airport authorities and airlines to be compassionate and provide extra seating, water, and food for passengers affected by delays. We understand your concerns and are working tirelessly to ensure your safe and swift travel. Your patience and cooperation are greatly appreciated,” Mr Naidu said.

He asked passengers to cooperate with airport staff during this period of disruption. Mr Naidu said regular updates on flight statuses will be given to passengers; extra staff has been deployed to address concerns of passengers, and airports are offering additional seating, water and food to ensure passengers are comfortable.

A Bengaluru airport spokesperson had said the global outage with the Navitaire Departure Control System (NDCS) has been affecting operations of some airlines across their network, including Bengaluru airport since.