Global IT outage was not a cyber attack, systems are recovering &

Despite a wave of IT disruptions around the world Last night local timeThousands of flights were cancelled and industries including hospitals, banks and the stock exchange were affected, but Tonga’s ICT network was largely unaffected. The outage stemmed from a CrowdStrike software issue that affected some Microsoft-based computers.

CrowdStrike, the world’s second-largest cybersecurity company, confirmed that the outage was not caused by a cyberattack. “The outage was caused by a software problem, which has been discovered and a fix has been deployed,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz told CNBC. While some systems can be restored quickly, others may face extended downtime.

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers affected by a flaw discovered in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not affected,” Kurtz said. The company is working with customers to resolve the issue, but for some customers this will require more than just a system reboot.

Tonga Communications Company (TCC) reportedly had unstable internet connectivity around midnight last night, a TCC customer service representative confirmed this morning, saying that both TCC’s landline and mobile internet data networks were disrupted due to a global network outage and they are working to resolve the issue. The good news is that TCC’s voice network is still affected, and TCC’s internet network was reportedly back to normal this afternoon. However, the customer service representative confirmed that the Digicel data network was not affected at all during last night’s outage.

This could be a more fatal blow to Tonga, as Starlink suffers setback If this global network problem hit us overnight like a tsunami, we might not be able to solve simple connectivity issues. Perhaps the worst experience people have had is a brief shutdown of social media due to the outage. Fortunately, so far, we are all fine.

The government’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) gave an update on the situation this afternoon. In a statement on social media, CERT said: “All system and network administrators, especially those in the banking, aviation and store/retail industries, are urged to remain vigilant and check systems regularly. We also encourage organisations affected by this outage to follow guidance provided by their vendors and take immediate action.”

This afternoon, the Development Bank of Tonga said in a statement on social media that its online banking services were also suspended due to connectivity issues with its internet service provider. The bank did not say when online services would be restored.

The incident is a disturbing reminder of how fragile our lives are due to our growing reliance on the internet and computer technology, and how disruptive it can be to our daily lives if technology fails us, or more precisely, if we neglect to install resilient software and systems.

At present, we should be more careful Scams and Phishing After such a power outage occurs.