大规模技术中断扰乱全球航班、银行、媒体和公司
【中美创新时报2024 年 7 月 19 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）周五，由于软件更新错误导致全球技术中断，航班停飞，媒体下线，医院、小型企业和政府办公室中断，凸显了数字化世界仅依赖少数供应商的脆弱性。美联社记者夏洛特·格雷厄姆-麦克莱对此作了下述详细报道。
网络安全公司 CrowdStrike 发布的更新问题影响了运行 Microsoft Windows 的客户。据 CrowdStrike 称，这不是黑客攻击或网络攻击的结果，该公司已道歉并表示正在修复中。
但几个小时后，许多公司仍继续受到干扰，他们忙于应对后果。
世界各地数千个航班被取消，数万个航班延误，导致美国、欧洲和亚洲机场排起了长队。航空公司在夏季旅游旺季无法办理登机手续和预订服务。
周五早上，美国几家地方电视台被禁止播出该新闻，一些州和地方政府报告称，法院、机动车部门、失业机构和其他机构出现问题。
受影响的医院预约系统出现问题，迫使他们暂停患者就诊并取消一些手术。
艾莉森·鲍洛斯 (Alison Baulos) 说，她 73 岁的父亲周五早上在肯塔基州帕迪尤卡 (Paducah) 进行的紧急心脏手术因技术故障而取消，这让她的家人感到害怕和担忧。
“所以如果发生任何事情，那都是因为今天早上没有做手术，”鲍洛斯在接受采访时说。她说，她的父亲正在浸信会医院等待，想知道接下来会发生什么。医院没有立即回复她留下的电话留言。
在其他地方，人们遇到了一些小麻烦，包括在星巴克提前订餐时遇到麻烦，导致这家咖啡连锁店的一些门店排起了长队。
令人不安的脆弱性提醒
网络专家詹姆斯·博尔表示，这将造成真正的伤害。“所有这些系统都运行着相同的软件，”博尔说。“我们让所有这些工具如此普及，以至于当事情不可避免地出错时——正如我们所见，它们会出错——它们会大规模出错。”
德国 IT 安全机构负责人克劳迪娅·普拉特纳 (Claudia Plattner) 表示，“我们不能指望很快得到解决方案。”很难预测所有系统何时会启动并运行，但“不会是几个小时，”她补充道。
CrowdStrike 在其客户服务热线的录音中表示，问题与“Falcon 传感器”有关，指的是其用于阻止在线攻击的产品之一。该公司表示，它拥有 29,000 名客户。
在接受 NBC 的“今日秀”采访时，CrowdStrike 首席执行官乔治·库尔茨 (George Kurtz) 道歉，称公司“对我们给客户、旅行者以及受此影响的任何人（包括我们的公司）造成的影响深感抱歉”。
“我们知道问题所在”，并正在努力补救，库尔茨说。
该公司总部位于德克萨斯州奥斯汀，周五股价下跌近 10%。微软股价下跌逾 3%。
虽然此次停电的影响可能波及广泛，但预测公司 Capital Economics 表示，它对世界经济的影响可能不大。
网络安全专家表示，受停电影响的人还需要警惕声称可以提供帮助的坏人。 “攻击者肯定会因此而攻击组织，”Gartner 分析师埃里克·格雷尼尔 (Eric Grenier) 表示。
大多数航空公司将问题归咎于他们的预订系统。仅在美国就有数千架航班受到影响，不过到上午晚些时候，东海岸的航空公司表示他们已经开始缓解问题并恢复部分服务。
英国的航空公司和铁路公司经历了漫长的等待时间。由于乘客登机困难，欧洲各地的机场暂停降落或停止起飞数小时。
德国奥运跳水队队员萨斯基亚·奥廷豪斯 (Saskia Oettinghaus) 就是被困在柏林机场的乘客之一。
“我们正在前往巴黎参加奥运会的路上，现在我们暂时处于停滞状态，”奥廷豪斯说。
前往巴黎的其他运动员和观众以及他们的制服和证件都被延误了，但奥运会组织者表示，干扰有限，不会影响票务或火炬传递。
广播公司停播，手术推迟，出现“死机蓝屏”
在澳大利亚，国家新闻机构——包括公共广播公司 ABC 和澳大利亚天空新闻台——无法在其电视和广播频道上播出数小时。一些新闻主播在黑暗的办公室里在线直播，面对着显示蓝色错误屏幕的计算机。互联网和电话提供商也受到影响。
在美国，密苏里州堪萨斯城的 KSHB-TV 在其网站上表示，直到凌晨 5:35 左右，它才播出 Scripps News 而不是当地新闻。该电视台表示，IT 团队和工程师通宵工作以解决故障。 Scripps 旗下的其他地方电视台也报告了类似的问题，不过 Scripps 发言人 Michael Perry 在周五早些时候的一封电子邮件中表示，90% 的电视台能够播放当地新闻。
不同国家的医院也报告了问题。
英国国家医疗服务体系 (NHS) 表示，此次停电导致英格兰大部分医生办公室出现问题。NHS England 在一份声明中表示，此次故障影响了整个公共卫生系统使用的预约和患者记录系统。
发言人表示，在马萨诸塞州最大的医疗保健系统 Mass General Brigham，由于停电，所有预定的非紧急手术、程序和医疗就诊均于周五取消。急诊科仍在开放。
航运也受到干扰。
位于波兰格但斯克波罗的海港口的主要集装箱枢纽——波罗的海枢纽 (Baltic Hub) 表示，它正在努力解决全球系统中断导致的问题。而在洛杉矶和长滩这两个双子港口，海运码头也受到了影响，但此次停电并未造成重大破坏。
“基本上，昨晚的影响很小，我们将不得不等待，看看这些码头在接下来的几个小时内会如何恢复，”洛杉矶港发言人菲利普·桑菲尔德说。
库尔滕巴赫在曼谷报道，格雷厄姆-麦克莱在新西兰惠灵顿报道。美联社全球记者对此作出了贡献。
题图：周五，在英国克劳利，乘客在盖特威克机场排队，全球 IT 中断。JACK TAYLOR/GETTY
附原英文报道：
Widespread technology outage disrupts flights, banks, media outlets, and companies around the world
By CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY The Associated Press,Updated July 19, 2024
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A global technology outage caused by a faulty software update grounded flights, knocked media outlets offline, and disrupted hospitals, small businesses and government offices on Friday, highlighting the fragility of a digitized world dependent on just a handful of providers.
The trouble with the update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike affected customers running Microsoft Windows. It was not the result of hacking or a cyberattack, according to CrowdStrike, which apologized and said a fix was on the way.
But hours later, the disruptions continued for many companies and they scrambled to deal with the fallout.
Thousands of flights were canceled and tens of thousands were delayed around the world, leading to long lines at airports in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Airlines lost access to check-in and booking services in the heart of the summer travel season.
Several local TV stations in the U.S. were prevented from airing the news early Friday, and some state and local governments reported problems at courts, motor vehicles departments, unemployment agencies and other offers.
Affected hospitals had problems with appointment systems, forcing them to suspend patient visits and cancel some surgeries.
Alison Baulos said her 73-year-old father’s emergency heart surgery in Paducah, Kentucky was cancelled Friday morning because of the tech outage, leaving her family scared and worried.
“So if anything happens, it would be as a result of not having the surgery this morning,” Baulos said in an interview. She said her father was waiting at Baptist Hospital to find out what will happen next. A phone message left with the hospital was not immediately returned.
Elsewhere, people experienced minor inconveniences, including trouble ordering ahead at Starbucks, causing long lines to form at some of the coffee chain’s stores.
A disturbing reminder of vulnerability
Cyber expert James Bore said real harm would be caused. “All of these systems are running the same software,” Bore said. “We’ve made all of these tools so widespread that when things inevitably go wrong — and they will, as we’ve seen — they go wrong at a huge scale.”
The head of Germany’s IT security agency, Claudia Plattner, said “we can’t expect a very quick solution.” A forecast for when exactly all systems will be up and running is difficult, but “it won’t be hours,” she added.
CrowdStrike said in a recording on its customer service line that the problem was related to “the Falcon sensor,” referring to one of its products used to block online attacks. The company says it has 29,000 customers.
In an interview on NBC’s “Today Show,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologized, saying the company was “deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies.”
“We know what the issue is” and are working to remediate it, Kurtz said.
Shares of the company, which is based in Austin, Texas, fell nearly 10% on Friday. Microsoft’s stock price fell more than 3%.
Though the outage’s impact could be felt far and wide, the forecasting firm Capital Economics said it was likely to have little impact on the world economy.
Cybersecurity experts said those affected by the outage also needed to be wary of bad actors reaching out claiming they can help. “Attackers will definitely prey on organizations as a result of this,” said Gartner analyst Eric Grenier.
Most airlines attributed the problems to their booking systems. Thousands of flights were affected in the U.S. alone, though by late morning on the East Coast airlines said they were beginning to mitigate problems and resume some service.
Airlines and railways in the U.K. experienced long wait times. And airports across Europe suspended landings or halted takeoffs for several hours due to difficulties in checking in passengers.
Saskia Oettinghaus, a member of the German Olympic diving team, was among those stuck at the Berlin Airport.
“We are on our way to Paris for the Olympic Games and now we are at a standstill here for the time being,” Oettinghaus said.
Other athletes and spectators traveling to Paris were delayed, as were their uniforms and accreditations, but Games organizers said disruptions were limited and didn’t affect ticketing or the torch relay.
Broadcasters go dark, surgeries delayed, ‘blue screens of death’
In Australia, national news outlets — including public broadcaster ABC and Sky News Australia — were unable to broadcast on their TV and radio channels for hours. Some news anchors went on air online from dark offices, in front of computers showing blue error screens. Internet and phone providers were also affected.
In the U.S., KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Missouri, aired Scripps News instead of local news until about 5:35 a.m., the stations said on its website. IT teams and engineers worked through the night to resolve the glitch, the station said. Other local stations owned by Scripps reported similar problems, though Scripps spokesman Michael Perry said in an email early Friday that 90% of stations were able to air local news.
Hospitals in different countries also reported problems.
Britain’s National Health Service said the outage caused problems at most doctors’ offices across England. NHS England said in a statement said the glitch was affecting the appointment and patient record system used across the public health system.
At Mass General Brigham, the largest health care system in Massachusetts, all scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and medical visits were cancelled Friday because of the outage, according to a spokesperson. Emergency departments remained open.
Shipping was disrupted too.
A major container hub in the Baltic port of Gdansk, Poland, the Baltic Hub, said it was battling problems resulting from the global system outage. And at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, marine terminals were affected but the outage didn’t cause significant disruption.
“Basically, it’s been minimal impact overnight and we’re going to have to wait and see how these terminals come up over the next several hours,” said Phillip Sanfield, a spokesperson for the Port of Los Angeles.
Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok and Graham-McLay from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed.
