Global IT Outage Hits Kenya: Airlines Revert to Manual Bookings

Kenya has joined the list of countries affected by a widespread global IT outage that has caused significant disruptions across various sectors.

The impact has been particularly noticeable in the airline industry where Kenyan carriers like their counterparts in the United States and Australia, have faced system challenges. As a result, many Kenyans have been unable to access online booking systems forcing airlines to revert to manual booking processes. The airlines have acknowledged the inconvenience caused by the outage and assured customers that efforts are underway to resolve the issue. In a statement, they explain that the outage was affecting all their stations and websites due to a global system downtime. They requested patience from customers as they resorted to manual processes which could lead to service delays.

The root cause of this extensive IT outage has been traced to an update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. George Kurtz, the company’s CEO, attributes the issue to a defect in a single content update for Windows hosts. He clarifies that Mac and Linux hosts were not affected and emphasizes that this was not a security incident or cyberattack. Kurtz assures that the issue was identified, isolated, and a fix had been deployed. While the outage has had a widespread impact globally, affecting banks and other institutions, it is worth noting that no bank in Kenya has reported a system failure.

However, the repercussions have been felt across various sectors worldwide. The global nature of this IT outage has led to chaos in many countries with major banks, media outlets, and airlines being among the victims. Numerous flights have been grounded resulting in long queues and delays at airports. In Australia, payment systems at stores went down, and financial institutions such as the National Australia Bank were affected. The issues then spread to the United States where major airlines like United, Delta, and American Airlines were forced to ground their flights globally. European airports also experienced significant disruptions. Long queues were reported at London’s Stansted and Gatwick airports as well as Amsterdam’s Schiphol.

Ryanair also faced potential disruptions across its network due to the outage. The impact extended beyond the aviation sector with the London Stock Exchange reporting issues with its news service which is used by companies to report market-sensitive information. CrowdStrike, a leading US-based cybersecurity firm, has been at the center of this global IT crisis. The company specializes in helping organizations manage their security in IT environments, protecting them from data breaches, ransomware, and cyberattacks. Their primary product, CrowdStrike Falcon, provides real-time indicators of attack, highly accurate detection, and automated protection against potential cybersecurity threats.

In response to the outage, CrowdStrike has been working diligently to resolve the issue. The company has advised customers to communicate through official channels for the latest updates. Kurtz states that their team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.