Warning as global IT outage which hit 8.5m devices set to cause 'continued disruption' at GP surgeries

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A global IT outage which hit 8.5 million devices is set to cause 'continued disruption' at GP surgeries, the NHS has said. Chaos unfolded after an update was sent out by Texan tech firm CrowdStrike, which left millions of Microsoft Windows devices unable to function properly.

Flights were cancelled, supermarkets and banks were affected and GP surgeries turned away patients after they were unable to call up records.

Now the US tech giants have confirmed that the glitch affected 8.5 million Windows devices. Estimating the impact of the update, the firm said it had affected less than one per cent of Windows machines. “While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services,” Microsoft said in a statement. READ MORE: Brits warned of ‘weeks’ of summer travel disruption after IT outage “This incident demonstrates the interconnected nature of our broad ecosystem — global cloud providers, software platforms, security vendors and other software vendors, and customers.

It’s also a reminder of how important it is for all of us across the tech ecosystem to prioritise operating with safe deployment and disaster recovery using the mechanisms that exist.” NHS England has said that its systems are 'coming back online in most areas' but are 'still running slightly slower than usual'.