NewsGlobal computer outage disrupts Germany's critical infrastructure

Global computer outage disrupts Germany's critical infrastructure

Chaos at the Berlin airport.
Chaos at the Berlin airport.
Images source: © PAP | PAP/EPA/CLEMENS BILAN

19 July 2024 20:31

Germany has also been affected by the global computer system outage. However, according to the government in Berlin, it was not a hacker attack.

The government in Berlin reassures that the global computer system outage, which has also heavily affected Germany, was not the result of a cyberattack. As the Federal Office for Information Security conveys, nothing points to that.

The cause is presumably a faulty update prepared by the IT company CrowdStrike. The company has announced that it is working on a solution to the problem. Additionally, the IT giant Microsoft has stated that it has an issue with one of its programs.

Critical infrastructure affected

In Germany, the software outage has impacted many sectors, including those classified as critical infrastructure. In the morning, Berlin's BER airport was closed for nearly two hours because the system responsible for passenger check-in was not functioning. Although on a smaller scale, issues also affected other German airports, including those in Hamburg and Düsseldorf.

The outage caused significant problems at the Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital in northern Germany. All scheduled Friday operations were cancelled, and the hospital clinics were closed. However, the hospital authorities assured that emergency care remained available.

On Friday, many countries around the world experienced similar issues with the operation of airports, hospitals, and banks.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced that security agencies will report on the global computer problems and will address this in close coordination with many other countries worldwide.

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