Massive IT outage hits South Africa

Microsoft customers worldwide, including South Africa, have been hit by a massive cyber issue.

Microsoft said that a Crowdstrike update was responsible for bringing down a number of Windows systems globally.

Windows users state that their computers show the operating system’s Blue Screen of Death.

In South Africa, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange issued a notice stating that the FTSE indices are not updating.

“Clients are advised that we are aware of the FTSE issue globally and are awaiting resolution. Clients are advised to trade with caution,” it said.

On the MyBroadBand forum, users said that at least one major insurer has been affected.

South Africa’s largest bank by customer numbers, Capitec, also faced an outage due to problems associated with Crowdstrike.

Capitec has since restored all of its banking services

“Since early this morning, clients have faced difficulties accessing various banking services, including online banking, mobile app transactions, and card payments,” said Capitec.

“Our tech team has worked quickly to resolve the problem — we are pleased to report that all our banking has now been fully restored.”

It added that its clients’ bank accounts and personal details were unaffected by the incident.

“Client service remains our top priority, and we deeply regret the severe impact this disruption has had on your banking experience,” it added.

“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience and understanding during this challenging time.”

Globally, the cyber outage has affected banks, media outlets, emergency services, government departments and airlines.

In its most recent update, Microsoft said that its impacted services include but are not limited to the following:

• PowerBI: Users may notice that their service is in read-only mode while we address impact.

• Microsoft Fabric: Users may notice that their service is in read-only mode while we address impact.

• Microsoft Teams: Users may be unable to leverage Microsoft Teams functions, including presence, group chats, and user registration.

• Microsoft 365 admin centre: Admins may be intermittently unable to access the Microsoft 365 admin centre, and any action may be delayed if accessible.

However, Microsofts internal telemetry and customer signals show that the following services have recovered:

• Microsoft Defender

• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

• Microsoft Defender Experts

• Microsoft Intune

• Microsoft OneNote

• OneDrive for Business

• SharePoint Online

• Windows 365

• Viva Engage

• Microsoft Purview

“We’re continuing to see an improvement in service availability across multiple Microsoft 365 apps and services. We’re closely monitoring our telemetry data to ensure this upward trend continues as our mitigation actions continue to progress,” said Microsoft.

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