As I do most mornings, I went to buy a banana from my local supermarket for breakfast but was turned away. ‘Cash only,’ I was told. I went to another supermarket instead and everything was fine. That can’t be said for the rest of the world, however, as a mass worldwide IT outage is causing havoc across the globe.
In the UK alone, there are major queues at Stanstead, Sky News stopped broadcasting for a bit, and you can’t book GP appointments. Several stores – like Waitrose and Morrisons – have experienced trouble with card payments, while one school meals booking system in England is also down. There are also issues with CBBC, Ladbrokes, and the London Stock Exchange.
How is it affecting Birmingham?
As mentioned, many supermarkets have gone cash only this morning because they’re unable to take card payments, as have countless other businesses in Birmingham.
We’ve also heard that Swift cards aren’t able to be scanned at New Street Station, with staff letting people through manually – which we imagine to be similar at other stations throughout the West Midlands.
Birmingham Airport has said the majority of flights were operating as normal but asks travellers to keep an eye on the situation. Ryanair has warned passengers, however, that there are “potential disruptions across the network”.
As said, systems are also down at many GP surgeries – with only the most sick being seen. GPs are currently unable to access patient notes, blood tests and imaging results.
Why is there a global IT outage?
The worldwide IT outage was initially linked to Windows PCs – with the blue screen of death hitting computers across the globe – but has since been specifically tied to the cyber security firm CrowdStrike. A system update on Windows 10 PCs, which is reportedly crashing computers and leaving them unable to reboot, is the issue.