Bahrain beats the bug

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Report by Ashen Tharaka 

Bahrain Airport Company (BAC) confirmed yesterday that all technical systems at Bahrain International Airport (BIA) are fully operational and unaffected by the global technical issue.

BAC reassured passengers that the disruptions seen, including flight cancellations, delays, and rescheduling, are due to external factors and not related to BIA’s technical infrastructure.

In light of the global issue, BAC has been proactively monitoring the situation and collaborating closely with relevant authorities to implement any necessary precautionary measures.

Meanwhile, Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign affairs issued a statement yesterday advising passengers to check the status of their flights with their respective airlines before arriving at the airport.

Widespread Disruptions

The Daily Tribune reached out to regional Artificial Intelligence expert and executive, Jassim Haji, to understand the technical situation behind this global issue.

According to Haji, a widespread computer outage has caused chaos across various sectors worldwide, including airlines, banks, media outlets, and other major companies.

The issue, which began on Thursday, has resulted in flight cancellations, TV stations going offline, and disruptions to banking services. Windows PCs unexpectedly displayed the infamous “blue screen of death” error, rendering them unusable and causing significant operational problems for businesses globally.

Haji explained that the root cause of this massive disruption appears to be a faulty cybersecurity update from Crowdstrike, a prominent cybersecurity company.

The problematic update led to Windows-based systems crashing, highlighting the delicate nature of software updates and the potential for widespread consequences when security measures fail.

The outage seems to have originated from a combination of factors. The problematic cybersecurity update was pushed out to numerous systems, which then encountered critical errors upon attempting to restart or update.

Additionally, issues with Microsoft’s cloud services, particularly Microsoft 365 and Azure, compounded the problem for many organizations relying on these platforms for their daily operations.

Far-Reaching Impact

In the aviation sector, at least three major US airlines — Delta, United, and American — were forced to ground hundreds of flights, affecting an estimated 100,000 passengers.

Over 20 international airports reported significant disruptions. Financial institutions, including Visa, Mastercard, and at least six national banks, reported issues affecting millions of customer transactions.

Media outlets like Sky News in the UK, with its 107 million monthly viewers, faced broadcasting difficulties.

Train operators across three countries experienced problems with their information systems, affecting over 1 million commuters.

Impact on Middle East

An outage of this magnitude could have severe implications for the Middle East, given the region’s increasing reliance on digital technologies.

Critical infrastructure such as oil and gas facilities, financial services, and transportation networks could face significant disruptions.

The region’s major airlines and airports, which serve as global hubs, would likely experience chaos similar to what was seen in other parts of the world.

Additionally, government services and healthcare systems that depend on digital platforms could be severely impacted, potentially affecting millions of people across the region.

Actions

Microsoft has gradually fixed the problem affecting access to its 365 apps and services. They worked on rerouting impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate the impact more quickly.

Crowdstrike has identified the issue with their update and has rolled it back, though affected computers still require manual intervention to resolve the issues.

Severe consequences

Meanwhile, Yaqoob Al-Awadhi, CEO of NGN Integrated Information Systems, confirmed that Bahrain had largely escaped the severe consequences of the recent “Crowd Strike” cybersecurity flaw that has disrupted systems and devices connected to the Internet worldwide.

Despite the global scale of the incident, Bahrain’s government services, companies, institutions, and individuals have not experienced the extensive damage seen in other countries and cities.

Al-Awadhi highlighted that Bahrain’s resilience amidst the crisis underscores the country’s pioneering role in digital transformation and its robust integration into the international information and communications community.

“This global imbalance reaffirms the significance of Bahrain’s proactive cybersecurity measures and advanced technical solutions,” Al-Awadhi stated.

Preparedness

The “Crowd Strike” defect has affected numerous systems globally, but Bahrain’s preparedness has minimised its impact.

The incident has highlighted the effectiveness of the country’s cybersecurity initiatives and the advanced measures in place to ensure operational continuity during emergencies.

However, Al-Awadhi emphasised the need for a thorough examination of the flaw to enhance Bahrain’s cyber defenses across public and private sectors, as well as for individuals.