Some online services of the UAE Government were affected by the cyber outage that paralysed major institutions around the world. Dubai International Airport (DXB) also confirmed that their operations were temporarily impacted.
The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mofa) on Friday urged the public not to make any transactions on its online portals as some of their electronic systems had been affected by the “global technical glitch”.
Authentication services were among those that were hit, Mofa said. “We advise customers not to make any transactions until this problem is resolved.”
Soon after, the Ministry of Human Resources issued a similar advisory, saying issues have been detected in some of its digital services.
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“Our technical team is currently working with the relevant authorities to overcome this challenge,” Mohre said.
Flight operations from Dubai International Airport (DXB) have resumed swiftly, following a system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines in Terminals 1 and 2, a DXB spokesperson confirmed to Khaleej Times.
“DXB is operating normally following a global system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines. The affected airlines promptly switched to an alternate system, allowing normal check-in operations to resume swiftly,” the spokesperson added.
In a separate statement sent to Khaleej Times, Etihad Airways said flights “operate as normal on Friday (19 July) following the global IT issue which is impacting organisations worldwide.”
“However, there may be some limited delays to services across its network as a result of the global disruption,” the spokesperson for the Abu Dhabi-based carrier added.
Dubai’s flagship carrier Emirates has so far reported no delays in flight operations but noted “there may be delays to some flight timings later today (July 19), due to knock-on effects from delayed departures from some airports around our network”.
“We are aware of the global IT disruption and are monitoring the situation closely. Customers can check our website and app for the latest flight information, and are advised to update their contact details on their booking,” added the Emirates spokesperson.
Flydubai also confirmed the global network outage has not impacted their operations. “The third-party IT issue has not impacted our operations. We continue to monitor closely and we are in touch with the supplier,” flydubai spokesperson said.
Airports in Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and India are among those affected, with long lines seen at check-in counters. Major US air carriers including Delta, United and American Airlines have also grounded all flights, according to US Federal Aviation Administration.
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.
What is Crowdstrike
Crowdstrike is a cybersecurity company that provides cloud-based endpoint protection solutions, explained Rayad Kamal Ayub, a UAE-based tech expert.
“Crowdstrike is a global provider of security technology and services focused on identifying advanced threats and targeted attacks,” said Ayub, managing director of Rayad Group.
Its flagship product, Falcon, is a cloud-based endpoint protection solution that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect intrusions across networks and endpoints, he added.
“Microsoft uses Crowdstrike for all their software,” Ayub stressed, establishing the link between the outage and several Microsoft-run systems being down.
What caused the outage
There could be two potential reasons for this outage, Ayub said.
“The company claims that it tried to push a regular update and it was not compatible and systems got crashed. The cybersecurity experts are also not ruling out the possibility of malicious attack,” he added.
Since Crowdstrike is widely used, the outage could cause major service disruptions in banks, airlines and other service providers.
“The public might face inconveniences and they should try to remain vigilant from hackers while using their systems,” Ayub said.