UPDATE: Problems at Brussels Airport, NMBS, banks and postal and government services due to worldwide IT malfunction

Governmental and banking digital services across Belgium are malfunctioning today due to global IT problems following a Microsoft security update. The NMBS and the country's airports are also experiencing problems, as are the postal service and two hospitals.

Countries around the world are experiencing a breakdown of digital applications affecting major companies, media outlets, airlines and banking institutions. The IT interruptions have been linked to an update to the Falcon Sensor virus scanner rolled out by a company called CrowdStrike.

In Belgium, the NMBS app does not work, meaning passengers cannot use it to view the schedule or buy tickets. The trains themserlves are running normally. “Any passengers who don’t have a ticket because of this should report it to the ticket inspector,” said a spokesperson.

The airports in Zaventem and Charleroi are also experiencing problems at the baggage check. “Many airlines use Microsoft Azure for baggage check-in, and it’s currently experiencing outages,” said a Brussels Airport spokesperson. Staff are turning to an alternative software or having to check in bags manually, causing long lines in the terminals. Airports in other countries have cancelled some flights altogether.

Microsoft users are the victims of the software malfunctions, though the IT giant isn’t to blame. Rather the American cybersecurity company CrowdStrike has caused the chaos, with an update to its Falcon Sensor virus scanner and malware detector.

The update is causing PCs and servers using Falcon Sensor to crash or become caught in a “boot loop”, wherein they start up over and over. Users are getting the famous BSOD (blue screen of death), indicating a system crash.

“CrowdStrike promotes itself as a company that ensures that malware won’t cause you to lose hours and days of time, costing your company money,” says Belgian computer scientist Jeroen Baert. “Now they are doing that themselves. It’s a bit ironic.”

We can compare it, he says, “to police officers in your city suddenly starting to commit crimes. Who are you going to call then?”

Some PC users have been able to start Windows in safe mode and take care of the problem. But for companies with hundreds or thousands of PCs, it’s not that simple.

CrowdStrike is working on a fix, according to CEO Georg Kurtz, who posted to Twitter that “the issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed”.