ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Friday urged Microsoft clients to update software from official support portal to restore tech services after a global computer system outage sparked widespread disruptions.
Services from airlines to health care, shipping and finance started coming back online late Friday after the outage was resolved, and companies were dealing with backlogs of delayed and canceled flights and medical appointments, missed orders and other issues that could take days to resolve.
A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, one of the largest operators in the industry, triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as health care or banking.
PTA, which regulates Internet in Pakistan, said the significant global IT outage was caused by a “faulty update” from cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike, impacting thousands of Windows machines worldwide.
“This outage also affected consumers of Microsoft in Pakistan. The fault forced affected PCs (personal computers) and servers into a recovery boot loop, preventing proper startup. Some Internet services are also affected because of this,” it said in a statement.
“The fault was identified, isolated and a fix is provided by Crowdstrike, as per Crowdstrike’s website. Clients are now suggested to update the software from their support portal to restore services.”
CrowdStrike is not a household name but it is an $83 billion company with more than 20,000 subscribers around the world including Amazon.com and Microsoft. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on social media platform X that a defect was found “in a single content update for Windows hosts” that affected Microsoft customers.
“We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our company,” Kurtz told NBC News.
CrowdStrike has one of the largest shares of the highly competitive cybersecurity market, leading some industry analysts to question whether control over such operationally critical software should remain with just a handful of companies.
The outage also raised concerns that many organizations are not well prepared to implement contingency plans when a single point of failure such as an IT system, or a piece of software within it, goes down. But these outages will happen again, experts say, until more contingencies are built into networks and organizations introduce better back-ups.
- With additional input from Reuters
Pakistan urges Microsoft users to update software as global tech outage eases after disruption
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Pakistan urges Microsoft users to update software as global tech outage eases after disruption
- Pakistan Telecommunication Authority says the global IT outage was caused by a ‘faulty update’ from cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike
- The outage also raised concerns that many organizations are not well prepared to implement contingency plans when an IT system goes down
Rating firm S&P says it won’t rush Iran war downgrades, sees risks for countries like Pakistan
- Agency says it is monitoring indebted energy importers as higher oil prices strain finances
- Gulf economies seen better placed to weather shock, though Bahrain flagged as vulnerable
LONDON: S&P Global said it would not make any knee-jerk sovereign rating cuts following the outbreak of war in the Middle East, but warned on Thursday that soaring oil and gas prices were putting a number of already cash-strapped countries at risk.
The firm’s top analysts said in a webinar that the conflict, which has involved US and Israeli strikes against Iran and Iranian strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states, was now moving from a low- to moderate-risk scenario.
Most Gulf countries had enough fiscal buffers, however, to weather the crisis for a while, with more lowly rated Bahrain the only clear exception.
Qatar’s banking sector could also struggle if there were significant deposit outflows in reaction to the conflict, although there was no evidence of such strains at the moment, they said.
“We don’t want to jump the gun and just say things are bad,” S&P’s head global sovereign analyst, Roberto Sifon-Arevalo, said.
The longer the crisis was prolonged, though, “the more difficult it is going to be,” he added.
Sifon-Arevalo said Asia was the second-most exposed region, due to many of its countries being significant Gulf oil and gas importers.
India, Thailand and Indonesia have relatively lower reserves of oil, while the region also had already heavily indebted countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka whose finances would be further hurt by rising energy prices.
“We are closely monitoring these (countries) to see how the credit stories evolve,” Sifon-Arevalo said.
