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(Trinidad Guardian) What was supposed to be a simple update turned into a major outage with global impact. The issue was linked to cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which affected customers running Microsoft Windows.
International airports, banks and even media outlets were thrown into panic as daily operations were disrupted, with some highlighting how fragile the world’s reliance on technology is.
In Trinidad and Tobago, Digital Transformation Minister Hassel Bacchus said there had been “no major impact on government services.” He said local branches of multinational companies were likely to be most affected.
He acknowledged in the release that there may have been minor setbacks in some areas, but most issues have been resolved.
In a telephone interview with the Guardian, he said he was satisfied with the response.
“One thing we’ve noticed is that there’s been an increase in awareness of this type of thing, and even though people don’t know what it is, their reactions indicate an increase in security and IT hygiene. It means people are more alert and are being more cautious,” Bacchus said.
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The Government will utilize relevant assets and continuously monitor the activities of ministries, departments and agencies, remain vigilant, and keep the public informed of all relevant future developments in this matter.
Meanwhile, the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) said it was affected by the global IT outage.
T&TEC said in a statement: “Due to the current global IT outage, its online payment platform experienced a brief disruption, which has now been resolved. As a result, customers can resume payments through Quick Pay and Customer Web Access (CWA). Credit card and cash payments at the service centre are also being processed normally.”
Other utility companies were largely unaffected. Officials at the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) confirmed the company was not affected.
Telecommunications Services Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) said in a statement: “TSTT’s services have not been impacted by the recent global IT issues affecting multiple industries. At this time, our services to government, enterprise, residential and mobile customers remain fully operational and uninterrupted. We are actively monitoring developments to assess any potential impact on our suppliers and stakeholders. Rest assured, we are prepared to take the necessary steps to ensure the reliability, continuity and security of our services.”
Digicel was not directly affected, but was not immune.
Public relations director Colin Greaves said: “Digicel does not use the IT or network software or services that have experienced issues worldwide, so Digicel services have not been affected and continue to operate as normal. That being said, some of our stores have experienced issues with their point of sale terminals when trying to accept card payments as some local banks have been affected by the IT issues.”
Royal Bank of Canada and Scotiabank affected
Royal Bank of Canada and Scotiabank were both affected. An internal memo sent to the Caribbean banking division and obtained by Guardian Media reads: “Due to global disruptions beyond our control, different business units around the world, including Royal Bank of Canada, have been impacted. As a result, some of our Caribbean banking applications are currently down, impacting our operations and the ability of our customers to conduct transactions through ATMs, POS (points of sale) and digital banking.”
The memo said “fixes have been deployed,” but it may take some time for all systems to return to normal operation. Customers reported problems using their cards or paying at merchants with RBC terminals.
Customers who walked into Scotiabank were told they could only conduct “basic transactions”.
In its official response, Scotiabank Wire acknowledged that it was affected, but did not disclose the extent of the impact.
“Scotiabank’s recovery is well underway following a massive technology outage that impacted multiple industries around the world. Our branches, contact centres, digital banking and wealth management channels are fully operational and serving customers,” an official said.
However, Republic Bank said, “At this time, our operations are not impacted. However, we take this opportunity to encourage customers to be vigilant regarding online activity on their personal accounts and credit or debit cards.”
Repeated calls to First Citizens Bank went unanswered.
The Trinidad and Tobago Bankers Association said: “Banks in Trinidad and Tobago are reviewing the situation based on updates from their technology partners. Our customers can be assured that our banking system is well protected and resilient. Any impact on banking services at this time is temporary.”
While the outage caused chaos at some Asian and European airports, sources at the Trinidad and Tobago Airports Authority confirmed that flights were departing and arriving normally at Piarco International Airport and ANR Robinson International Airport.
However, United Airlines flight (UH 1459) to Houston at 12:30 a.m. on Friday was canceled. United Airlines said on its website homepage that “a third-party software failure affected computer systems around the world, including United Airlines. We are restoring some flights, but we expect flight disruptions to continue through Friday.”
However, Caribbean Airlines said it was not affected.
“We are aware of the current global IT outage affecting many services around the world. We are pleased to inform you that Caribbean Airlines flights and operations remain as planned,” Caribbean Airlines said in a statement.
However, the airline does remind passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
Guardian Media contacted the Energy Chamber to find out if energy companies were affected but had not received a response as of late yesterday. However, BPTT said in an email response that “operations have not been impacted”.
Crowdstrike CEO apologizes
Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz apologized for the outage in a statement on its website.
“All of us at CrowdStrike understand the severity and impact of this situation,” said Kurtz. “We quickly identified the issue and deployed a fix, allowing us to focus solely on restoring our customers’ systems as our top priority.”
“This outage was caused by a flaw discovered in the Falcon content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts were not affected. This was not a cyberattack. We are working closely with impacted customers and partners to ensure all systems are restored so you can provide the services your customers depend on.”
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