KUALA LUMPUR – All that is currently known about the major disruption experienced by global internet systems using Microsoft cloud services is that it was not a cyberattack, but rather a crash and “bootloop” due to an update released by one of the world’s largest cybersecurity vendors, CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.
While the trigger behind the chaos was a piece of CrowdStrike software – the Falcon Sensor – tens of thousands in Malaysia, and millions more worldwide, were affected by the disruption.
The Falcon Sensor is software that sits behind the curtain of many corporate systems, from which it detects viruses or any number of cyber threats.
National Cyber Security Agency (Nacsa) chief executive Megat Zuhairy Megat Tajuddin assured the public that the disruption was linked to CrowdStrike’s software updating, causing Microsoft systems to continuously restart – or bootloop.
The issue affected almost all online operations worldwide across various industries using Microsoft-based systems, including banks, aviation, telecommunications firms, television and radio broadcasts and supermarkets, forcing them to resort to manual transactions on paper.
Microsoft said its disruption began at about 6am Malaysia time, but the issue persisted affecting countries in Europe, as well as the US, Australia, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.
The tech giant is primarily affected as CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor software is rarely used in Apple systems. Some users reported experiencing a “blue screen of death”, a well known error message on Windows systems.
The outage this time only affected enterprises as the software is not made for individual users. CrowdStrike has since issued a temporary workaround.
In response, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said his ministry was closely monitoring the situation, after receiving reports on the disruptions.
Local firms affected by the disruption include gateway service provider iPay88, which suffered a three-hour long disruption, from about 1.30pm to 4.40pm.
It is understood that iPay88 has thousands of clients from a myriad of major retail and e-commerce companies, including Resorts World Genting, Tokio Marine, and Jobstreet.
In the aviation sector, US airline firms such as American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines remained grounded for hours after the disruption began. German and Spanish airports have reported similar issues as well.
In Malaysia, budget airlines such as AirAsia, Firefly, and Scoot also had their wings “clipped” due to their kiosks being affected by the disruption, and had to opt for manual check-ins.
According to AirAsia’s website, it was still continuing its operations despite having to work around the system disruption, as of 7.30pm. On the other hand, it was reported that major airlines like Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines suffered no disruptions.
Local telecommunications company TM also confirmed that there was no disruption to its business operations and services, after they “proactively detected the issue and managed it swiftly.”
Separately, three of Malaysia’s digital banks – Aeon Bank (M) Bhd, GX Bank, and Boost – have confirmed that their operations were not affected despite the global internet outage.
Meanwhile in Singapore, its Digital Development and Information Ministry said local government services, banks, telecommunication firms, and hospitals were not affected.
A third of McDonald’s outlets in Japan also closed or operated with limits due to cash register malfunctions, amid the disruption.
In Australia, popular grocery store chain Woolworths was also impacted and had fewer functioning checkout kiosks. Its website also depicted a notification that it was experiencing technical difficulties both online and at its physical stores. – July 20, 2024