What is affected?

Initially, the problems in air traffic were the most visible. The airport in Berlin, for example, had to suspend operations at the beginning of the vacation season. Air traffic was also massively disrupted in Hamburg. In the USA, the FAA stopped flights by airlines such as United, American and Delta. In northern Germany, several clinics canceled planned operations. In the UK, a system for booking doctors' appointments in the NHS was paralyzed. The British television station Sky News and the London Stock Exchange also struggled with problems.

Where else is there disruption?

In addition to Germany, problems were also reported in the USA, India and Australia.

Was it a cyberattack?

According to initial findings, there are no indications of this.

So what caused the disruptions?

There was initially no clear answer to this question. In the first few hours, IT experts only gradually worked their way to the cause of the problem. One central theory: one trigger could have been a bug in a program update from the IT security company Crowdstrike. This in turn interfered with software from software giant Microsoft, among others. The latest update is currently being withdrawn, a Crowdstrike spokesperson told the US broadcaster CNBC.

How much longer will it take?

After a few hours, there were initial signs that the situation was normalizing.

What does Crowdstrike do?

The American company plays a central role in protecting against IT threats and secures websites, among other things. One of its products, called Falcon, is used to detect malicious activity in data traffic. According to media reports, a faulty Falcon update may have caused the disruption.

How great is the financial damage caused by the outages?

That will probably take weeks or months to estimate. In addition to the immediate costs, subsequent claims by affected customers could also play a role. Crowdstrike's share price felt the effects of the problems in pre-market trading, falling by more than 20 percent at times.

How is it possible for a provider to experience problems on such a broad front?

One reason is the concentration in the tech industry. A service provider often serves thousands of companies. Problems with them then have a broad impact. In the past, mistakes made by IT security companies have paralyzed dozens of websites at once. /so/DP/mis (as of 19.07.24, 11:25 a.m.)