When on my way to buy a banana this morning from Waitrose, I was turned away from the supermarket. ‘Cash only,’ I was told. I went to Sainsbury’s instead and everything was fine. That can’t be said for the rest of the world, however, as a mass worldwide IT outage is causing havoc across the globe.
In the UK alone, there are now major queues at Stanstead, Sky News has stopped broadcasting and there are problems with booking appointments at GP surgeries. Several stores are unable to card payments too, while one school meals booking system in England is also down. There are also issues with CBBC, Edinburgh Airport departures board, and Thameslink Railway.
How is it affecting Bristol?
As mentioned, Waitrose has gone cash only this morning. While GAIL’s is reportedly down too, as is Watershed. We’re sure countless businesses in Bristol are unable to take card payments this morning. Keep that in mind if heading to Bristol Harbour Festival today…
We’ve also seen that Bristol Water is experiencing “company wide IT issues” and Clevedon School Sports Centre is unable to take bookings. Trains are running as normal on Great Western Railway, but some difficulties with ticket issuing have been reported. As said, systems are also down at many GP surgeries – with only the most sick being seen.
At Bristol Airport, there’s been no disruption to flights but do expect to see some – so check with your airline before flying. Ryanair has warned passengers, however, that there are “potential disruptions across the network”.
Why is there a global IT outage?
It was initially linked to Windows PCs – the blue screen of death hitting computers across the globe – but has now been specifically tied to the cyber security firm CrowdStrike. An update on Windows 10 PCs is reportedly crashing computers and leaving them unable to reboot.