‘Enormous’
By AFP
July 19, 2024
A large-scale outage wrought havoc on IT systems, causing travel delays at Sydney Airport - Copyright AFP DAVID GRAY
A major outage wrought havoc on global computer systems on Friday, grounding flights in the United States, derailing television broadcasts in the UK and impacting telecommunications in Australia.
Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator said the “large-scale technical outage” was caused by an issue with a “third-party software platform”, adding there was no information as yet to suggest hacker involvement.
Flights were suspended at Berlin Brandenburg airport in Germany due to a “technical problem”, a spokeswoman told AFP.
“There are delays to check-in, and flight operations had to be cancelled until 10:00 am (0800 GMT),” the spokeswoman said, adding that she could not say when they would resume.
The UK’s biggest rail operator warned of possible train cancellations due to IT issues, while photos posted online showed large queues forming at Sydney Airport in Australia.
“Flights are currently arriving and departing however there may be some delays throughout the evening,” a Sydney Airport spokesman said.
– Banks, airports hit –
“We have activated our contingency plans with our airline partners and deployed additional staff to our terminals to assist passengers.”
Sky News in the UK said the glitch had ended its morning news broadcasts, while Australian broadcaster ABC similarly reported a major “outage”.
Some self-checkout terminals at one of Australia’s largest supermarket chains were rendered useless, displaying blue error messages.
New Zealand media said banks and computer systems inside the country’s parliament were reporting issues.
Australian telecommunications firm Telstra suggested the outages were caused by “global issues” plaguing software provided by Microsoft and cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
Microsoft said in a statement it was taking “mitigation actions” in response to service issues.
It was not clear if those were linked to the global outages.
“Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions,” Microsoft said in a post on social media platform X.
CrowdStrike could not immediately be reached for comment.
– ‘Enormous’ –
University of Melbourne expert Toby Murray said there were indications the problem was linked to a security tool called Crowdstrike Falcon.
“CrowdStrike is a global cyber security and threat intelligence company,” Murray explained.
“Falcon is what is known as an endpoint detection and response platform, which monitors the computers that it is installed on to detect intrusions (i.e. hacks) and respond to them.”
University of South Australia cybersecurity researcher Jill Slay said the global impact of the outages was likely to be “enormous”.
July 19, 2024
A large-scale outage wrought havoc on IT systems, causing travel delays at Sydney Airport - Copyright AFP DAVID GRAY
A major outage wrought havoc on global computer systems on Friday, grounding flights in the United States, derailing television broadcasts in the UK and impacting telecommunications in Australia.
Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator said the “large-scale technical outage” was caused by an issue with a “third-party software platform”, adding there was no information as yet to suggest hacker involvement.
Flights were suspended at Berlin Brandenburg airport in Germany due to a “technical problem”, a spokeswoman told AFP.
“There are delays to check-in, and flight operations had to be cancelled until 10:00 am (0800 GMT),” the spokeswoman said, adding that she could not say when they would resume.
The UK’s biggest rail operator warned of possible train cancellations due to IT issues, while photos posted online showed large queues forming at Sydney Airport in Australia.
“Flights are currently arriving and departing however there may be some delays throughout the evening,” a Sydney Airport spokesman said.
– Banks, airports hit –
“We have activated our contingency plans with our airline partners and deployed additional staff to our terminals to assist passengers.”
Sky News in the UK said the glitch had ended its morning news broadcasts, while Australian broadcaster ABC similarly reported a major “outage”.
Some self-checkout terminals at one of Australia’s largest supermarket chains were rendered useless, displaying blue error messages.
New Zealand media said banks and computer systems inside the country’s parliament were reporting issues.
Australian telecommunications firm Telstra suggested the outages were caused by “global issues” plaguing software provided by Microsoft and cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
Microsoft said in a statement it was taking “mitigation actions” in response to service issues.
It was not clear if those were linked to the global outages.
“Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions,” Microsoft said in a post on social media platform X.
CrowdStrike could not immediately be reached for comment.
– ‘Enormous’ –
University of Melbourne expert Toby Murray said there were indications the problem was linked to a security tool called Crowdstrike Falcon.
“CrowdStrike is a global cyber security and threat intelligence company,” Murray explained.
“Falcon is what is known as an endpoint detection and response platform, which monitors the computers that it is installed on to detect intrusions (i.e. hacks) and respond to them.”
University of South Australia cybersecurity researcher Jill Slay said the global impact of the outages was likely to be “enormous”.
Microsoft has serious questions to answer after what could be the biggest IT outage in history
There are questions too for anyone whose livelihood depends on IT products made by an increasingly powerful oligopoly of tech companies.
Tom Clarke
Science and technology editor @t0mclark3
Friday 19 July 2024
It's possible we are looking at the largest IT outage in history.
More than 70% of the world's desktop computers run on Microsoft Windows software.
A software update from one of Microsoft's clients - cybersecurity company CrowdStrike - has now taken a large number of those machines offline.
The faulty code - just a few lines long - has led to global disruption with an economic impact that is as yet incalculable - but likely to be huge.
Follow live: Major services across the world affected by outage
The "Falcon Sensor" product designed to protect Windows from malicious attacks is used widely on Mac and Linux systems as well as within more bespoke software for things like cash machines.
IT outages: CrowdStrike CEO apologises 'We're deeply sorry'
Thankfully, the update that caused the Microsoft meltdown did not affect these other software families - if it had, the impacts could have been catastrophic.
MORE FROM SCIENCE & TECH
Global IT outages latest: Security firm CrowdStrike rules out cyber attack as world copes with tech 'disaster'
Global IT outage hits companies around the world as planes grounded and train services affected
Global IT outage: Air and rail travel chaos continues - as passengers describe 'bedlam' conditions
Serious questions
There are serious questions of course for CrowdStrike.
But also Microsoft: What due diligence do they perform on third party providers and on individual updates before they're released across their globally dominant system?
There are questions too for anyone whose livelihood depends on IT products made by an increasingly powerful oligopoly of tech companies.
Read more:
Mass IT outage affects worldwide travel
Any engineer will tell you over-reliance on one system leaves you open to a "single point of failure". Critical digital infrastructure has to have redundancy - back up systems - built in to ensure it is resilient.
Thankfully, it seems IT in emergency services, hospitals, air traffic control, water and power utilities and government departments have come through largely unscathed.
That is reassuring.
But for everyone else, the global disruption caused by a bit of routine IT maintenance raises profound questions about the reliability of the software on which the world runs.
There are questions too for anyone whose livelihood depends on IT products made by an increasingly powerful oligopoly of tech companies.
Tom Clarke
Science and technology editor @t0mclark3
Friday 19 July 2024
It's possible we are looking at the largest IT outage in history.
More than 70% of the world's desktop computers run on Microsoft Windows software.
A software update from one of Microsoft's clients - cybersecurity company CrowdStrike - has now taken a large number of those machines offline.
The faulty code - just a few lines long - has led to global disruption with an economic impact that is as yet incalculable - but likely to be huge.
Follow live: Major services across the world affected by outage
The "Falcon Sensor" product designed to protect Windows from malicious attacks is used widely on Mac and Linux systems as well as within more bespoke software for things like cash machines.
IT outages: CrowdStrike CEO apologises 'We're deeply sorry'
Thankfully, the update that caused the Microsoft meltdown did not affect these other software families - if it had, the impacts could have been catastrophic.
MORE FROM SCIENCE & TECH
Global IT outages latest: Security firm CrowdStrike rules out cyber attack as world copes with tech 'disaster'
Global IT outage hits companies around the world as planes grounded and train services affected
Global IT outage: Air and rail travel chaos continues - as passengers describe 'bedlam' conditions
Serious questions
There are serious questions of course for CrowdStrike.
But also Microsoft: What due diligence do they perform on third party providers and on individual updates before they're released across their globally dominant system?
There are questions too for anyone whose livelihood depends on IT products made by an increasingly powerful oligopoly of tech companies.
Read more:
Mass IT outage affects worldwide travel
Any engineer will tell you over-reliance on one system leaves you open to a "single point of failure". Critical digital infrastructure has to have redundancy - back up systems - built in to ensure it is resilient.
Thankfully, it seems IT in emergency services, hospitals, air traffic control, water and power utilities and government departments have come through largely unscathed.
That is reassuring.
But for everyone else, the global disruption caused by a bit of routine IT maintenance raises profound questions about the reliability of the software on which the world runs.
Global IT outage knocks airlines, banks and others offline
Martyn Landi,
PA Technology Correspondent
Fri, 19 July 2024
Businesses and institutions around the world have been been knocked offline after a major IT outage, believed to have been caused by a faulty update to widely used cybersecurity software.
The outage is “causing disruption in the majority of GP practices” in England but there is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, NHS England said.
The health service said patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise and should only contact their GP if it was urgent.
Major infrastructure including airlines, train companies, banks and media outlets have ground to a halt after their computer systems were knocked offline or leaving devices showing the so-called “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD).
In the UK, Sky News went off air, while Britain’s biggest train company warned passengers to expect disruption because of “widespread IT issues”, as did many major airlines and airports.
Across England, GP surgeries have reported being unable to book appointments or access patient records as their EMIS Web system went down.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) also said “services in community pharmacies, including the accessing of prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries, are disrupted today”.
Around the world, banks, supermarkets and other major institutions reported computer issues disrupting services, while many businesses have been left unable to take digital payments.
Microsoft has confirmed it was aware of and fixing issues with its cloud platform, Azure, but many cybersecurity experts have reported the potential source of the issue as global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which provides cyber attack monitoring and protection to many major businesses.
Experts have said a flawed update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor software could be the source of the problem.
CrowdStrike has not issued a statement on the issue, but calls to the company’s technical support phoneline were met with a recorded message which said it was “aware of reports of crashes on Windows … relating to the Falcon sensor.”
CrowdStrike has advised affected customers to log on to their customer service portal for assistance.
Overnight, Microsoft confirmed it was investigating an issue with its services and apps, with the tech giant’s service health website warning of “service degradation” that meant users may not be able to access many of the company’s most popular services, used by millions of businesses and people around the world.
Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt also reported seeing issues at CrowdStrike, with Australian telecoms firm Telstra posting to X, formerly Twitter, that the worldwide outage was “because of a global issue affecting both Microsoft and CrowdStrike”.
Sky News was knocked off air (Sky News/Screengrab)
Among the impacted firms are Ryanair, with the airline posting to its website: “Potential disruptions across the network (Fri 19 July) due to a global third party system outage.
“Affected passengers will be notified and any passengers travelling across the network on Fri 19 July should check their Ryanair app for the latest updates on their flight.
“We advise passengers to arrive at the airport three hours in advance of their flight to avoid any disruptions.
“We regret any inconvenience caused to passengers by this third party IT issue, which is outside of Ryanair’s control and affects all airlines operating across the network.”
Edinburgh Airport said the IT outage is causing longer waiting times.
A spokesperson said: “An IT system outage means wait times are longer than usual at the airport.
“This outage is affecting many other businesses, including airports.
“Work is ongoing to resolve this and our teams are on hand to assist where we can. Passengers are thanked for their patience.”
Fri, 19 July 2024
Businesses and institutions around the world have been been knocked offline after a major IT outage, believed to have been caused by a faulty update to widely used cybersecurity software.
The outage is “causing disruption in the majority of GP practices” in England but there is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, NHS England said.
The health service said patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise and should only contact their GP if it was urgent.
Major infrastructure including airlines, train companies, banks and media outlets have ground to a halt after their computer systems were knocked offline or leaving devices showing the so-called “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD).
In the UK, Sky News went off air, while Britain’s biggest train company warned passengers to expect disruption because of “widespread IT issues”, as did many major airlines and airports.
Across England, GP surgeries have reported being unable to book appointments or access patient records as their EMIS Web system went down.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) also said “services in community pharmacies, including the accessing of prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries, are disrupted today”.
Around the world, banks, supermarkets and other major institutions reported computer issues disrupting services, while many businesses have been left unable to take digital payments.
Microsoft has confirmed it was aware of and fixing issues with its cloud platform, Azure, but many cybersecurity experts have reported the potential source of the issue as global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which provides cyber attack monitoring and protection to many major businesses.
Experts have said a flawed update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor software could be the source of the problem.
CrowdStrike has not issued a statement on the issue, but calls to the company’s technical support phoneline were met with a recorded message which said it was “aware of reports of crashes on Windows … relating to the Falcon sensor.”
CrowdStrike has advised affected customers to log on to their customer service portal for assistance.
Overnight, Microsoft confirmed it was investigating an issue with its services and apps, with the tech giant’s service health website warning of “service degradation” that meant users may not be able to access many of the company’s most popular services, used by millions of businesses and people around the world.
Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt also reported seeing issues at CrowdStrike, with Australian telecoms firm Telstra posting to X, formerly Twitter, that the worldwide outage was “because of a global issue affecting both Microsoft and CrowdStrike”.
Sky News was knocked off air (Sky News/Screengrab)
Among the impacted firms are Ryanair, with the airline posting to its website: “Potential disruptions across the network (Fri 19 July) due to a global third party system outage.
“Affected passengers will be notified and any passengers travelling across the network on Fri 19 July should check their Ryanair app for the latest updates on their flight.
“We advise passengers to arrive at the airport three hours in advance of their flight to avoid any disruptions.
“We regret any inconvenience caused to passengers by this third party IT issue, which is outside of Ryanair’s control and affects all airlines operating across the network.”
Edinburgh Airport said the IT outage is causing longer waiting times.
A spokesperson said: “An IT system outage means wait times are longer than usual at the airport.
“This outage is affecting many other businesses, including airports.
“Work is ongoing to resolve this and our teams are on hand to assist where we can. Passengers are thanked for their patience.”
Rail services were affected (Peter Byrne/PA)
Meanwhile, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) – parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern – warned passengers to expect delays because of the issue.
According to service status monitoring website Downdetector, users were reporting issues with the services of Visa, BT, major supermarket chains, banks, online gaming platforms and media outlets.
GP practices across England took to social media to report they cannot access the EMIS Web system.
It is understood that NHS hospitals are currently unaffected by the outage.
EMIS Web is the most widely used clinical system for primary care in the UK.
It enables GP practices to book appointments, examine records and includes a clinical decision support tool as well as helping with admin.
Solihull Healthcare Partnership in the West Midlands said there is a “national issue” with EMIS Web.
It said on X: “Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web – our clinical computer system.
“This will affect our ability to book/consult with patients this morning.”
Windrush Medical Practice in Witney, Oxfordshire, said it is continuing with emergencies but urged patients with “routine concerns” to wait until Monday.
Other GP surgeries hit by the outage have said the issue “will have a big effect”.
Central Lakes Medical Group in Ambleside wrote on X: “We’re impacted by the IT outage.
“This will have a big effect on us, so apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused, and delays on the phone.”
Cybersecurity experts said that the widespread access CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor had to business systems meant an issue with the platform would have widespread effects.
Toby Murray, associate professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne, said: “CrowdStrike Falcon has been linked to this widespread outage. CrowdStrike is a global cybersecurity and threat intelligence company.
“Falcon is what is known as an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platform, which monitors the computers that it is installed on to detect intrusions – hacks – and respond to them. That means that Falcon is a pretty privileged piece of software in that it is able to influence how the computers it is installed on behave.
“For example, if it detects that a computer is infected with malware that is causing the computer to communicate with an attacker, then Falcon could conceivably block that communication from occurring. If Falcon is suffering a malfunction then it could be causing a widespread outage for two reasons – one: Falcon is widely deployed on many computers, and two: because of Falcon’s privileged nature.
“Falcon is a bit like anti-virus software: it is regularly updated with information about the latest online threats – so it can better detect them. We have certainly seen anti-virus updates in the past causing problems e.g. here.
“It is possible that today’s outage may have been caused by a buggy update to Falcon.”
Exactly what caused global chaos as 'largest IT outage in history' hits millions
Martyn Landi & Maisie Lawton
Fri, 19 July 2024
-Credit: (Image: PA)
A global IT meltdown has caused chaos around the world today after a major IT outage.
It is believed the mass IT outage was caused by a fault in a Microsoft Windows update to widely used cybersecurity software.
Key services such as airlines, train operators, banks, and media companies have been brought to a standstill, with their computer systems either crashing or displaying the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death" (BSOD).
READ MORE: LIVE: Sky News, Ryanair, trains, banks and supermarkets hit by global IT outage amid Microsoft Windows issues
In the UK, viewers noticed Sky News was off the air, while the nation's largest rail operator alerted customers to anticipate travel disruptions due to "widespread IT issues", a situation echoed by numerous major airlines and airports.
GP practices across England have also been affected, facing difficulties in scheduling appointments or retrieving patient records as their EMIS Web system crashed. The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) also said “services in community pharmacies, including the accessing of prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries, are disrupted today”.
Around the world, banks, supermarkets and other major institutions reported computer issues disrupting services, while many businesses have been left unable to take digital payments.
Microsoft has confirmed it was aware of and fixing issues with its cloud platform, Azure, but many cybersecurity experts have reported the potential source of the issue as global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which provides cyber attack monitoring and protection to many major businesses. Experts have said a flawed update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor software could be the source of the problem. CrowdStrike has not yet publicly confirmed any issue.
Overnight, Microsoft confirmed it was investigating an issue with its services and apps, with the tech giant’s service health website warning of “service degradation” that meant users may not be able to access many of the company’s most popular services, used by millions of businesses and people around the world.
Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt also reported seeing issues at CrowdStrike, with Australian telecoms firm Telstra posting to X, formerly Twitter, that the worldwide outage was “because of a global issue affecting both Microsoft and CrowdStrike”.
Among the impacted firms are Ryanair, with the airline posting to its website: “Potential disruptions across the network (Fri 19 July) due to a global third party system outage.
“Affected passengers will be notified and any passengers travelling across the network on Fri 19 July should check their Ryanair app for the latest updates on their flight.
“We advise passengers to arrive at the airport three hours in advance of their flight to avoid any disruptions.
“We regret any inconvenience caused to passengers by this third party IT issue, which is outside of Ryanair’s control and affects all airlines operating across the network.”
Edinburgh Airport said the IT outage is causing longer waiting times.
A spokesperson said: “An IT system outage means wait times are longer than usual at the airport.
“This outage is affecting many other businesses, including airports.
“Work is ongoing to resolve this and our teams are on hand to assist where we can. Passengers are thanked for their patience.”
Meanwhile, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) – parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern – warned passengers to expect delays because of the issue.
According to service status monitoring website Downdetector, users were reporting issues with the services of Visa, BT, major supermarket chains, banks, online gaming platforms and media outlets.
GP practices across England took to social media to report they cannot access the EMIS Web system.
It is understood that NHS hospitals are currently unaffected by the outage.
EMIS Web is the most widely used clinical system for primary care in the UK.
It enables GP practices to book appointments, examine records and includes a clinical decision support tool as well as helping with admin.
Solihull Healthcare Partnership in the West Midlands said there is a “national issue” with EMIS Web.
It said on X: “Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web – our clinical computer system.
“This will affect our ability to book/consult with patients this morning.”
Windrush Medical Practice in Witney, Oxfordshire, said it is continuing with emergencies but urged patients with “routine concerns” to wait until Monday.
Other GP surgeries hit by the outage have said the issue “will have a big effect”.
Central Lakes Medical Group in Ambleside wrote on X: “We’re impacted by the IT outage.
“This will have a big effect on us, so apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused, and delays on the phone.”
Cybersecurity experts said that the widespread access CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor had to business systems meant an issue with the platform would have widespread effects.
Toby Murray, associate professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne, said: “CrowdStrike Falcon has been linked to this widespread outage. CrowdStrike is a global cybersecurity and threat intelligence company.
“Falcon is what is known as an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platform, which monitors the computers that it is installed on to detect intrusions – hacks – and respond to them. That means that Falcon is a pretty privileged piece of software in that it is able to influence how the computers it is installed on behave.
“For example, if it detects that a computer is infected with malware that is causing the computer to communicate with an attacker, then Falcon could conceivably block that communication from occurring. If Falcon is suffering a malfunction then it could be causing a widespread outage for two reasons – one: Falcon is widely deployed on many computers, and two: because of Falcon’s privileged nature.
“Falcon is a bit like anti-virus software: it is regularly updated with information about the latest online threats – so it can better detect them. We have certainly seen anti-virus updates in the past causing problems e.g. here.
“It is possible that today’s outage may have been caused by a buggy update to Falcon.”
GPs and pharmacies hit by global IT outage disrupting appointment bookings and prescriptions
Holly Bancroft
Fri, 19 July 2024
GP surgeries and pharmacies across England have said they are unable to book appointments or access patient’s prescriptions amid a major global IT outage.
Technical issues are affecting “the majority of GP practices”, NHS England said, but there is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services in England.
GPs have reported having problems accessing patient records or booking appointments, while pharmacies have said they cannot access prescriptions. This could affect the delivery of medicines to patients, some pharmacies have said.
One hospital trust also declared a critical incident on Friday after they had to reschedule cancer patient’s radiotherapy appointments due to problems with the IT system.
Thousands of GPs cannot currently access the EMIS web system, which is understood to be used by around 60 per cent of practices. The system enables GPs to book appointments, examine records, and includes a clinical decision support tool as well as help with admin.
Many GPs and pharmacies have been affected by the IT outage (PA)
It is thought that around 3,700 GP practices may be affected.
The NHS said they would turn to using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions to cope while the IT issues are ongoing.
Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust said on Friday morning that radiotherapy treatments at their hospitals had also been impacted by the outage. They have declared a critical incident, saying that they are “currently unable to deliver our scheduled radiotherapy treatments”.
A spokesperson added: “This issue has affected Varian, the IT system we use to deliver radiotherapy treatments. We have contacted our patients who were due to have radiotherapy this morning to reschedule appointments while we work to fix these issues.”
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust told The Independent that they were experiencing problems with their patient administration system. This is causing delays when new patients arrive at A&E or at the maternity services as they cannot be registered on the IT system and instead registrations are being processed by hand.
They’ve not seen an impact on scheduled appointments however.
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust said their freephone crisis line had been temporarily affected by the outage but it is now back up and running.
An NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in the majority of GP practices.
“The NHS has long-standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP.
“There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.
“Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise. Only contact your GP if it’s urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111."
The NHS were keen to emphasise that blood donation appointments have not been affected and donors should attend as usual.
There is still an ongoing urgent need for more people with O negative blood to come forward and donate after major hospitals were impacted by a cyberattack in June.
Wilmslow health centre, a GP practice outside of Manchester, said that all practices in the UK using the EMIS system were currently without access to their IT programmes. “We anticipate this could last for many hours. Please bear with us during this challenging time,” they wrote.
Solihull healthcare partnership in the West Midlands said there was a “national issue” with EMIS Web. It wrote on social media: “Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web - our clinical computer system.
“This will affect our ability to book/consult with patients this morning.”
Another post by Pocklington Group Practice in the East Riding of Yorkshire said: “Due to ongoing Windows issues affecting IT worldwide, the practice is currently unable to function as normal.
“This may result in appointments needing to be cancelled and rearranged. Updates will follow when available.”
A spokesman for the National Pharmacy Association said pharmacies were affected.
He said: “We’re aware that due to global IT outages that services in community pharmacies, including the accessing of prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries, are disrupted today. We urge patients to be patient whilst visiting their pharmacy.”
The global IT issues have been caused by a defect in a software update from cyber security company CrowdStrike for Windows hosts, CrowdStrike’s CEO said on Friday morning.
IT outage 'causing disruption in majority of GP practices' in England
Sky News
Fri, 19 July 2024
Most GP practices in England have suffered disruption as a result of the major global IT outage, causing problems with booking appointments and issuing prescriptions.
But NHS England said there was currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services as a result of the mass computer failure, blamed on a defective Windows update.
Thousands of doctors' surgeries have been affected after the widely-used EMIS appointment and patient record system went down.
Global IT outage: Follow live
Pharmacies have also reported issues with accessing prescriptions from GP surgeries and said this would affect the delivery of medicines to patients.
A spokeswoman for NHS England said: "The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in the majority of GP practices.
"The NHS has long-standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP.
"There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.
"Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise. Only contact your GP if it's urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111."
EMIS Web enables GP practices to book appointments, examine records and includes a clinical decision support tool as well as helping with admin.
Read more:
Source of IT outage 'identified' and 'fix deployed'
What has been impacted by the global IT outage and where?
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said: "Any form of disruption to our digital systems is a serious concern for GPs as it directly impacts on the care we can give to our patients.
"Outages like this affect our access to important clinical information about our patients, as well as our ability to book tests, make referrals, and inform the most appropriate treatment plan."
Urging patients to "bear with" GPs, she added: "We really hope that the problems can be resolved quickly and that services are restored to normal as soon as possible."
A spokesman for the National Pharmacy Association said: "We're aware that due to global IT outages that services in community pharmacies, including the accessing of prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries, are disrupted today.
"We urge patients to be patient whilst visiting their pharmacy.
"We're urgently raising this issue with the NHS England."
Dr Farah Jameel, a GP in central London working at Museum Practice, said she was unable to access patient notes, imaging results, medication history and blood tests.
'This is unsafe'
She said: "I think we need to underline the clinical impact of this IT disruption on how significantly it has interrupted clinical care.
"This is unsafe."
She added: "At present, we cannot access any patient notes and are trying to assess patients on a case-by-case basis.
"We are unable to access blood test results, imaging results, clinical history and anticipate that the clinical documentation work will accumulate through the course of the day.
"Patient care pathways will be interrupted as we are unable to organise simple management plans like organising tests, and issuing regular medications.
"We are operating a clinical triage system so that we can ensure safety of our patients and see those with the greatest clinical need. Deferring all others that can safely wait to another day."
The Wilmslow Health Centre in Cheshire wrote on X that practices "using the NHS commissioned GP computer system EMIS are currently without access to their IT systems".
It added: "This is beyond the control of GP surgeries. Please bear with us until we have our IT systems back online."
Solihull Healthcare Partnership in the West Midlands said on X: "Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web - our clinical computer system.
"This will affect our ability to book/consult with patients this morning.
"We will update patients when we can. We apologise for the disruption."
Windrush Medical Practice in Witney, Oxfordshire, said it is continuing as normal but urged patients with "routine concerns" to wait until Monday.
Central Lakes Medical Group in Ambleside wrote: "We're impacted by the IT outage.
"This will have a big effect on us, so apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused, and delays on the phone."
Cancellation warning
Another post by Pocklington Group Practice in the East Riding of Yorkshire said: "Due to ongoing Windows issues affecting IT worldwide, the practice is currently unable to function as normal.
"This may result in appointments needing to be cancelled and rearranged. Updates will follow when available."
Salisbury District Hospital also confirmed in a post on social media that it had been impacted.
It said: "We are suffering some delays at our hospital with our administrative services due to the global IT outage.
"We ask patients and visitors to please bear with us as we use alternative methods."
West Herts Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which includes Watford General, Hemel Hempstead & St Albans City Hospitals, said in a post on X: "Patient services still running.
"We have only experienced a minor impact to our IT services following today's global IT outage."
Sky News
Fri, 19 July 2024
Most GP practices in England have suffered disruption as a result of the major global IT outage, causing problems with booking appointments and issuing prescriptions.
But NHS England said there was currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services as a result of the mass computer failure, blamed on a defective Windows update.
Thousands of doctors' surgeries have been affected after the widely-used EMIS appointment and patient record system went down.
Global IT outage: Follow live
Pharmacies have also reported issues with accessing prescriptions from GP surgeries and said this would affect the delivery of medicines to patients.
A spokeswoman for NHS England said: "The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in the majority of GP practices.
"The NHS has long-standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP.
"There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.
"Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise. Only contact your GP if it's urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111."
EMIS Web enables GP practices to book appointments, examine records and includes a clinical decision support tool as well as helping with admin.
Read more:
Source of IT outage 'identified' and 'fix deployed'
What has been impacted by the global IT outage and where?
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said: "Any form of disruption to our digital systems is a serious concern for GPs as it directly impacts on the care we can give to our patients.
"Outages like this affect our access to important clinical information about our patients, as well as our ability to book tests, make referrals, and inform the most appropriate treatment plan."
Urging patients to "bear with" GPs, she added: "We really hope that the problems can be resolved quickly and that services are restored to normal as soon as possible."
A spokesman for the National Pharmacy Association said: "We're aware that due to global IT outages that services in community pharmacies, including the accessing of prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries, are disrupted today.
"We urge patients to be patient whilst visiting their pharmacy.
"We're urgently raising this issue with the NHS England."
Dr Farah Jameel, a GP in central London working at Museum Practice, said she was unable to access patient notes, imaging results, medication history and blood tests.
'This is unsafe'
She said: "I think we need to underline the clinical impact of this IT disruption on how significantly it has interrupted clinical care.
"This is unsafe."
She added: "At present, we cannot access any patient notes and are trying to assess patients on a case-by-case basis.
"We are unable to access blood test results, imaging results, clinical history and anticipate that the clinical documentation work will accumulate through the course of the day.
"Patient care pathways will be interrupted as we are unable to organise simple management plans like organising tests, and issuing regular medications.
"We are operating a clinical triage system so that we can ensure safety of our patients and see those with the greatest clinical need. Deferring all others that can safely wait to another day."
The Wilmslow Health Centre in Cheshire wrote on X that practices "using the NHS commissioned GP computer system EMIS are currently without access to their IT systems".
It added: "This is beyond the control of GP surgeries. Please bear with us until we have our IT systems back online."
Solihull Healthcare Partnership in the West Midlands said on X: "Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web - our clinical computer system.
"This will affect our ability to book/consult with patients this morning.
"We will update patients when we can. We apologise for the disruption."
Windrush Medical Practice in Witney, Oxfordshire, said it is continuing as normal but urged patients with "routine concerns" to wait until Monday.
Central Lakes Medical Group in Ambleside wrote: "We're impacted by the IT outage.
"This will have a big effect on us, so apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused, and delays on the phone."
Cancellation warning
Another post by Pocklington Group Practice in the East Riding of Yorkshire said: "Due to ongoing Windows issues affecting IT worldwide, the practice is currently unable to function as normal.
"This may result in appointments needing to be cancelled and rearranged. Updates will follow when available."
Salisbury District Hospital also confirmed in a post on social media that it had been impacted.
It said: "We are suffering some delays at our hospital with our administrative services due to the global IT outage.
"We ask patients and visitors to please bear with us as we use alternative methods."
West Herts Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which includes Watford General, Hemel Hempstead & St Albans City Hospitals, said in a post on X: "Patient services still running.
"We have only experienced a minor impact to our IT services following today's global IT outage."
'Majority' of GP practices hit by IT outage - NHS issues update
Elaine Blackburne
Fri, 19 July 2024 at 4:07 am GMT-6·2-min read
-Credit: (Image: iStockphoto)
The NHS has issued a statement after a major IT outage affected "the majority" of GP practices. Reports began to come in on Thursday night of issues with some services including flights, trains, banks and shops.
They have continued today with more services advising they have been hit. Microsoft 365 has already issued a statement to say they are investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access apps and services.
Now the NHS has spoken out following the issue. A spokesperson said: “The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in the majority of GP practices. The NHS has long-standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP.
“There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would. Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise. Only contact your GP if it’s urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111."
People took to social media to raise awareness of the issue. Some health practices have also confirmed they had problems.
Wilmslow Health Centre said: “All practices in the UK using the NHS-commissioned GP computer system EMIS are currently without access to their IT systems. This is beyond the control of GP surgeries. Please bear with us until we have our IT systems back online.”
Posting on X, formerly twitter, Microsoft said earlier today: “Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions. We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue.”
It comes following reports of widespread IT outages affecting airlines, broadcasters and banks. Ryanair warned travellers of "potential disruptions" and advised people to get to their airport at least three hours ahead of their flights.
Incidents have been reported across the globe of IT issues causing delays at check-in. Spain said that all of its airports were impacted while Berlin said people were struggling to check in.
USA-based airlines United, Delta and American Airlines have issued a “global ground stop” on all of their flights. Gatwick systems were reportedly down, with Berlin airport citing delays due to ‘technical fault’.
