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As the world continues to recover from major business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation to their own advantage.
Government cyber security agencies around the world and even CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes involving malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other technology specialists offering to help those recovering from disruptions.
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“We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I urge everyone to be vigilant and make sure you engage with an authorized CrowdStrike representative.”
The UK Cyber ​​Security Center says there has been an increase in phishing attempts in this event.
Microsoft said 8.5 million devices running its Windows operating system were affected by a cybersecurity update on Friday that caused disruptions around the world. That’s less than 1% of all Windows-based machines, Microsoft cybersecurity executive David Weston said in a blog post on Friday.
He also said that significant disruptions are rare but “demonstrate properties associated with broad ecosystems.”
What happened to air travel?
By early morning on the US East Coast, airlines worldwide had canceled more than 1,500 flights, fewer than the 5,100-plus cancellations on Friday, according to figures from tracking service FlightAware.
Two-thirds of the canceled flights on Saturday occurred in the United States, where carriers were scrambling to get planes and crews back into position after major disruptions the previous day. According to travel data provider Cirium, US carriers canceled about 3.5% of their scheduled flights on Saturday. Only Australia was hit hard.
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Canceled flights accounted for about 1% in the UK, France and Brazil and about 2% in Canada, Italy and India among major air travel markets.
Robert Mann, a former airline executive and now a consultant in the New York area, said it was unclear why US airlines suffered from disproportionate cancellations, but possible causes included greater levels of technology outsourcing and greater exposure to Microsoft’s operating system. a faulty upgrade from CrowdStrike.
How is the health care system fixed?
Health care systems affected by the outage faced closing clinics, canceling surgeries and appointments and limiting access to patient records.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, said “steady progress has been made” to bring servers back online and thanked patients for being flexible during the crisis.
“Our team will be working actively over the weekend as we continue to resolve outstanding issues in preparation for the start of the work week,” the hospital wrote in a statement.
In Austria, a leading doctors’ organization said the blackout showed the vulnerability of relying on digital systems. Harald Mayer, vice president of the Austrian Chamber of Doctors, said the outage showed that hospitals must have analog backups to protect patient care.
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The organization also called on the government to adopt high standards for the protection and security of patient data, and for healthcare providers to train staff and create systems to manage crises.
“Happily, if there is a problem, it remains small and short and many treatment areas are not affected” in Austria, Mayer said.
The University Hospital of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany, which canceled all elective procedures on Friday, said on Saturday that systems were gradually being restored and elective operations could resume on Monday.
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Stephen Graham in Berlin and Technology writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this report.
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