A massive internet outage is currently affecting major industries worldwide, including airlines, banks, media outlets, and offices.
The widespread disruption has caused chaos and confusion, with many struggling to access essential online services.
The outage appears to be linked to issues with Microsoft and Akamai Technologies, although the exact cause is still unknown. Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and is working to resolve it.
In a statement, Microsoft 365 said: “We’re investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services
“We’re continuing to progress on our mitigation efforts for the affected Microsoft 365 apps and services. We still expect users to see remediation as we address residual impact.”
This latest outage comes after a series of brief internet disruptions in recent months, often attributed to software or technical issues at web services companies.
Airlines are experiencing flight delays and cancellations due to their inability to access critical systems.
Virgin Australia said flights were largely operating as scheduled after it restored access to its website and guest contact centre.
“Virgin Australia was one of many organizations to experience an outage with the Akamai content delivery system today.
“We are working with them to ensure that necessary measures are taken to prevent these outages from reoccurring,” the airline company said.
United Airlines said in a statement Friday that all aircraft were grounded while it worked to fix a “third party software outage”.
“A third party software outage is impacting computer systems worldwide, including at United. While we work to restore those systems, we are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights already airborne are continuing to their destinations,” United said.
Banks are also affected, with online banking and transactions impacted, and some ATMs offline. The UK central bank said a “global payments issue” was affecting the service and delaying some high value and time-sensitive payments, including some house purchases.
“We are mindful of the impact this is likely to have and are working closely with a third-party supplier, industry and other authorities to resolve the issue as promptly as possible,” it said in a statement.
Media outlets and streaming services are experiencing disruptions, and remote work and communication are severely impacted in offices worldwide.
Cloud services provider Akamai Technologies had given an alert on its “Edge DNS” service incident, noting a “partial outage” on its website.
“We have implemented a fix for this issue, and based on current observations, the service is resuming normal operations,” it said later in a tweet.