Edited, illustration purposes.
A huge global technology outage on Friday has disrupted airlines, medical services, banks and scores of other businesses and services around the world, a stunning example of the fragile dependence the global economy has on certain software and the cascading effect it can have when things go wrong.
The outage was attributed to CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm whose software is used by scores of industries around the world to protect against hackers and outside breaches. The problem appeared to result in crashes of machines running the Microsoft Windows operating system.
The spillover effects have been felt all over the world.
At least three major U.S. airlines, American, United and Delta, grounded all flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, one day after a major outage at Microsoft briefly grounded some flights.
In Australia, problems persisted at Sydney Airport, one of Australia’s largest and busiest transportation hubs, just as the weekend was getting underway for many. The airport said it had activated its contingency plan and deployed additional staff to the terminals.
The outage does not exclude Hong Kong, with the impact on some aeroplane operations and terminal services conspicuous.
The airport said on social media “Flights are currently arriving and departing, however, there may be some delays throughout the evening.”
Similar problems were also reported at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and Dubai International Airport.
There were also local reports in Phoenix that emergency response systems were down, causing at least one hospital to divert ambulances to other facilities.
Representatives for CrowdStrike did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Microsoft declined to comment.
Microsoft said the problem had affected multiple systems for customers in the central United States.
The Airport Authority said on Friday that flight operations at the airport were undisrupted, but affected airlines had “switched to manual check-in to continue serving passengers”.
In Hong Kong, the authority has activated its emergency response mechanism in response to the situation,” a spokesperson said.
The Airport Authority said on Friday that flight operations at the airport were undisrupted, but affected airlines had “switched to manual check-in to continue serving passengers”.
He also suggested travellers “allow sufficient time to travel to the airport for check-in procedures and stay alert to updates”.
Several Hong Kong airline websites stopped functioning, with HK Express inaccessible.
Cathay Pacific Airways’ website was accessible as of Friday afternoon, but a Post reporter’s attempt to book a ticket led to a page that stated: “Service unavailable - zero sizes object”.
Our global e-commerce system, Navitaire, had been affected, a spokesperson for HK Express, the budget arm of Cathay Pacific said.
“Multiple airlines worldwide, including HK Express’ website, mobile app and WeChat mini-app (including the Gotta Go Super Sale booking) have been impacted,” it was added.
全球技術中斷影響了世界各地的航班和企業
週五發生的大規模全球技術中斷已經擾亂了世界各地的航空公司、醫療服務、銀行和許多其他企業和服務，這是全球經濟對某些軟體的脆弱依賴以及當事情發生時可能產生的連鎖效應的一個令人震驚的例子錯誤的。
這次中斷是由網路安全公司 CrowdStrike 造成的，該公司的軟體被全球許多產業用來防止駭客和外部破壞。 該問題似乎導致運行 Microsoft Windows 作業系統的機器崩潰。
世界各地都感受到了外溢效應。
據美國聯邦航空管理局稱，至少三大美國航空公司——美國航空、聯合航空和達美航空——在微軟發生重大故障並暫時停飛部分航班的一天后，停飛了所有航班。
在澳大利亞，就在許多人即將迎來週末之際，澳洲最大、最繁忙的交通樞紐之一的雪梨機場問題仍然存在。 機場表示已啟動應急計劃，並向航站樓部署了更多工作人員。
這次停電並不排除香港，對一些飛機運營和航站樓服務的影響非常明顯。
機場在社交媒體上表示，“航班目前正在抵達和起飛，但整個晚上可能會出現一些延誤。”
柏林勃蘭登堡機場、阿姆斯特丹史基浦機場和杜拜國際機場也報告了類似問題。
鳳凰城當地也有報導稱，緊急系統癱瘓，導致至少一家醫院將救護車轉移到其他設施。
CrowdStrike 的代表週五沒有回應置評請求。 微軟拒絕置評。
微軟表示，該問題影響了美國中部客戶的多個系統。
機場管理局週五表示，機場的航班運營沒有受到干擾，但受影響的航空公司已「轉為人工辦理登機手續，以繼續為乘客提供服務」。
在香港，當局已啟動應急機制以應對這一情況。
機場管理局週五表示，機場的航班運營沒有受到干擾，但受影響的航空公司已「轉為人工辦理登機手續，以繼續為乘客提供服務」。
他還建議旅客「留出足夠的時間前往機場辦理登機手續，並保持警惕以了解最新情況」。
多家香港航空公司的網站停止運作，香港快運航空的網站也無法進入。
截至週五下午，國泰航空的網站已可訪問，但郵報記者嘗試預訂機票時，出現的頁面顯示“服務不可用 - 零尺寸物體”。
國泰航空的預算部門香港快運發言人表示，我們的全球電子商務系統 Navitaire 已受到影響。
「全球多家航空公司，包括香港快運航空網站、手機應用程式和微信小應用程式（包括Gotta Go Super Sale預訂）都受到了影響，」它補充道。
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