UAE residents didn’t expect that they had to carry cash for purchases on Friday afternoon as some shops had to suddenly switch to “cash-only” payments due to some tech issues. The glitches were reported as a massive global cyber outage affected various sectors, from aviation to banking.
Some who were buying groceries or tanking up their cars had to scramble for instant cash as card payments weren’t working. Others weren’t able to withdraw from ATMs. Travellers were affected, too, due to flight delays.
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A surprised Dubai resident told Khaleej Times: “I popped into my local grocery store to pick up water and some milk on way home from a meeting. I was told it was cash only as the store’s POS (point of sale card machine) was not working. The ATM next door was also down so I could not pay as I had no cash. Thankfully, it was a friend’s shop Ajwa in Barsha Heights and they let me take the goods with payment to be done later,” said Mathew.
Meanwhile, when Geethalakshmi Ramachandran went to a petrol station in Jebel Ali on Friday to get gas, she was also shocked when she was told the petrol station would only accept cash payments. “Luckily, I had Dh50,” she added, noting: “I assume it’s going to be more chaotic as I have been receiving messages that card payments are not working in some stores and pharmacies.”
Some big and small retail stores in Abu Dhabi were also affected for a few hours this morning but are reportedly back to normal operations.
“Our card payment was not working in the morning, and we resorted to cash payment. But the tech snag seems to have been fixed as of 4 pm our card payments are working,” a staff at a cash counter of Abu Dhabi Cooperative Society said.
Even point-of-sale systems of small grocery stores were temporarily affected.
“This morning, we had issues with our POS machine, but it’s fine now,” a staff at the cash counter of a grocery store said.
Meanwhile, LuLu Group, running a chain of hypermarkets and retail firms, reported no glitches in its operations.
“We at LuLu Group are not using the affected software, hence, we have not experienced any system outage or disruptions. With regard to our partners getting affected by this crisis, we work with multiple partners to safeguard our systems and ensure seamless operations,” Mohammed Anish, CIO of LuLu Group, said.
A global cyber outage affected major services, including airports, airlines, banks and government institutions on Friday. Some online services of the UAE Government were likewise affected and Dubai International Airport (DXB) confirmed that their operations were temporarily impacted.
The system reportedly stemmed from a bad update pushed by US-based cybersecurity technology firm Crowdstrike that led to PCs and servers running their software to crash and unable to recover.
Delayed flights
Travellers also faced issues on Friday. Dubai resident Fazla said her father-in-law was one of those affected by the outage. “He was travelling from Dubai to India and his flight was supposed to take off at 12.50,” she said. “At the boarding gate he was informed that the flight had been infinitely delayed due to the global outage.”
She said it was quite chaotic at the airport. “Several flights were impacted but the airport staff was very swift in getting things sorted,” she said. “By around 2.30pm, he sent a message saying he will board shortly. However, his flight was later delayed till the next day and his luggage was offloaded.”
UAE-based travel agencies also faced issues. Noushad Hassan, from Alhind Business Center, told Khaleej Times their platform was affected. He said: “Over 1800 agencies in the UAE use our platform,” Airlines were unable to upload their latest fares, so the fares for all airlines, except one or two, are not being updated on our platform. This means several agencies are unable to issue tickets now.”
“Check in systems are facing problems, so many flights have been delayed as passengers are not able to check in. This is going to cause problems at least for the next one or two hours. But since it is a global outage, I am expecting things to be sorted out very quickly. We are all keenly monitoring the situation,” he added.
Meanwhile, delivery and ride-hailing app Careem said in a statement sent to Khaleej Times: “There has been no impact on our operations. Our offices and services are functioning as usual.”
(With inputs from Ashwani Kumar)