Millions face pay delays and summer holiday chaos after CrowdStrike IT disaster

Wages could be paid late and flights are still affected.

Mayhem caused by the world’s biggest ever IT disaster is set to rumble on amid fears the millions of computers impacted could take weeks to all be fixed.

Summer holiday plans have been plunged into chaos with thousands of Brits left stranded abroad after 50,000 flights in and out of the UK were affected by the global systems outage.

And millions of workers are also now facing the risk of their wages going unpaid, causing a major headache for both businesses and employees.

The unprecedented carnage was caused by a ‘defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts’ at software company CrowdStrike, with many reporting the infamous ‘blue screen of death’.

It says the issue has been ‘identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed’ but the knock-on effect has been monumental – and experts have warned it could take weeks for systems to fully recover.

Sky News went down, while trains, hospitals, GPs, banks and shops were also affected by the meltdown, which hit on what was projected to be the busiest day for the aviation industry in five years.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said he is ‘deeply sorry’ for the error and the company understands the ‘gravity and impact of the situation’, while making clear it was ‘not a security or cyber’ attack.

Millions face pay delays

The body which represents payroll professionals has warned that millions of workers across the UK are at risk of not getting paid.

British companies could be facing ‘serious implications’ due to the IT failure depending on how long the issues last, according to the Global Payroll Association.

It said that members of staff who are paid on a weekly basis are especially at risk of going unpaid, but even those on monthly salaries could face hold ups.

There were 300 million computers affected worldwide and Melanie Pizzey, the industry body’s chief executive, told The Telegraph: ‘We’ve been contacted by numerous clients already today who have been unable to access their payroll software due to the Microsoft outage and others who have been urged to log out with immediate effect.

‘Furthermore, we could see a backlog with regard to processing payrolls for the coming month end which may delay employees from receiving their monthly wage.’

Airport chaos continues with flights delayed and cancelled

Yesterday was a complete disaster for the aviation industry following CrowdStrike’s flawed software update attempt.

Planes were ordered not to land and airports were scenes of complete pandemonium with huge crowds pictured after flights were disrupted in the UK, US, Australia, Spain, Germany and many other countries.

And the summer holiday chaos is likely to continue, airports have warned as they try to recover.

Airports across the UK – including London Gatwick, Heathrow Airport, Manchester Airport and Belfast International Airport – stressed that passengers should check with airlines for any delays or cancellations before travelling over the weekend.

A Gatwick spokesperson said: ‘Following earlier global issues, our airport IT systems are now operating as normal and we expect the majority of our flights to operate as usual.

‘Some delays and cancellations will however continue this evening and over the weekend. We strongly advise passengers to check with their airline for the latest updates.’

Meanwhile, a Manchester Airport spokesperson said: ‘Check-in and boarding for the affected airlines are being carried out manually and are taking longer than normal resulting in some long queues at check-in.

‘Some flights may be impacted by delays and schedules have been affected by issues caused by the effects of the global IT outage at airports all over the world. This means some flights could be cancelled by airlines at short notice.’

Some 167 flights scheduled to depart from UK airports were axed on Friday, with many others delayed, while 171 flights due to land in the UK were cancelled.

Aviation analytics company Cirium said 5,078 flights – or 4.6% of those scheduled – were cancelled globally on Friday.

The Port of Dover also said it was inundated with thousands of holidaymakers.

It wrote on X: ‘We are seeing hundreds of displaced airport passengers arriving at the Port, please ensure you have a booking before arrival.’

Recovery could take ‘weeks’

Industry expert Adam Leon Smith of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, warned that it could even take ‘weeks’ for all computers and systems to be fully restored.

‘The fix will have to be applied to many computers around the world. So if computers are getting blue screens and endless loops, it could be more difficult and take days and weeks,’ he said.

Professor Ciaran Martin, the founding chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), also said it was hard to estimate how long it would take to recover from the outage.

‘The underlying problem is fixed and the fixes are being implemented,’ he said.

‘Some industries can recovery quickly. But others like aviation will have long backlogs. That said, I’d be surprised if we were still facing serious problems this time next week.’

The worldwide outage is expected to cost the global economy trillions, experts added.

Crowdstrike founder and CEO Mr Kurtz said: ‘I want to sincerely apologise directly to all of you for today’s [Friday] outage. 

‘All of CrowdStrike understands the gravity and impact of the situation. We quickly identified the issue and deployed a fix, allowing us to focus diligently on restoring customer systems as our highest priority.

‘The outage was caused by a defect found in a Falcon content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This was not a cyberattack.

‘We are working closely with impacted customers and partners to ensure that all systems are restored, so you can deliver the services your customers rely on.

‘Nothing is more important to me than the trust and confidence that our customers and partners have put into CrowdStrike. 

‘As we resolve this incident, you have my commitment to provide full transparency on how this occurred and steps we’re taking to prevent anything like this from happening again.’

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