The Namibia Airports Company (NAC) on Friday issued a passenger advisory to confirm all scheduled flights to its airports were normal, despite a worldwide computer crash. The crash was caused by an antivirus software update by a company called CrowdStrike on Microsoft’s cloud computing service.
“In the wake of the global information technology issue affecting some airlines’ check-in systems since Friday morning, NAC can confirm that all scheduled flights to our airports were normal. However, passengers are advised to stay in touch with their airlines via websites and social media feeds for advice and updates on specific flights,” read a statement from NAC spokesperson Dan Kamati. He also reminded passengers of the NAC airports’ standard passenger advisory to arrive two hours before international departures at the international airports of Hosea Kutako and Walvis Bay.
A local IT analyst noted that the domestic impact was minimal as very few Namibian businesses use Crowdstrike, which he described as costly and restrictive in nature. “The biggest impact in the region was in South Africa, where some businesses came to a complete standstill. The problem with so many businesses using the same software is a major disadvantage that could potentially cripple the gobal economy,” the analyst warned.
The global software outage affected airlines, banks, hospitals and other organisations around the world which chose the CrowdStrike company to keep their computer networks safe. And, while not all businesses use CrowdStrike and its platform known as Falcon, it remains one of the leading cybersecurity providers, specifically in transportation, healthcare, banking and other high-risk industries.
“This is a function of the very homogenous technology that goes into the backbone of all of our IT infrastructure,” said an academic at a leading US university. “What really causes this mess is that we rely on very few companies, and everybody uses the same folks, so everyone goes down at the same time.”
CrowdStrike share prices fell 11.1% on Friday, even after the company issued a software fix, while Microsoft shares lost 0.7% in value.
Meanwhile, AFP reported that global stock markets fell on Friday after the global computer crash.
“The London Stock Exchange saw a delayed start to trading due to the glitch — the result of a faulty update to an antivirus programme — which also affected airports, airlines, trains, banks, shops and even doctors’ appointments. Later, the calculation of London’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index was frozen during part of the afternoon, as was the main index for the LSE-owned Milan stock exchange. Trading in stocks was unaffected,” AFP reported.
“A global IT outage led to risk-off sentiment,” said Axel Rudolph, senior market analyst at online trading platform IG.
AFP further reported that aviation officials in the United States briefly grounded all planes, and airlines elsewhere cancelled or delayed flights as systems running Microsoft Windows crashed.
“The world grinding to a halt because of a global IT meltdown shows the dark side to technology, and that relying on computers does not always make life easier,” noted Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at stockbroker AJ Bell.
– Additional reporting by Nampa/AFP