With a major IT outage recorded across the world, Lithuania’s National Cyber Security Centre (NKSC) says it has no information about any disruptions to critical services in the country.
“As of 11:00, the NKSC has not received any information about disruptions to critical services related to this incident,” Rūta Apeikytė, the centre’s adviser, told BNS on Friday.
Major disruptions affecting flights, television broadcasts, and banking services were reported on Friday in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, India, New Zealand, Australia, and other countries.
According to Apeikytė, the disruptions are linked to an update to the CrowdStrike Falcon antivirus software, causing an issue with Windows software.
“This is an incident related to the operation of information systems and not a cyber-event,” she wrote.
The NKSC is in contact with cyber security centres in other countries and exchanges relevant information, according to Apeikytė.
The centre recommends that all organisations using CrowdStrike Falcon anti-virus software revert to its previous version.
Disruptions in online check-in
Despite a major IT outage recorded across the world on Friday, Lietuvos Oro Uostai (Lithuanian Airports, LTOU) says that flights are operating as normal, with passengers unlikely to feel any impact.
“For now, major, global disruptions, to our knowledge, are mainly in airlines’ systems,” Tadas Vasiliauskas, spokesman for Lithuania’s state-owned airport operator, told BNS.
“Based on the information we receive from ground service companies that assist airlines, the impact is minimal. Passengers should not feel any impact, at least for now,” he said.
With no flight delays currently reported, passengers are advised to arrive at the airport two hours before their flight as usual.
“The situation can change rapidly depending on how the entire European region handles the challenges. But at this moment, we are not seeing major delays, and everything is operating normally,” Vasiliauskas added.
Ireland’s budget airline Ryanair, which operates in Lithuania, has announced on social media that booking and check-in services are currently unavailable online.
With Wizzair also facing disruptions, Vasiliauskas said that both carriers are physically checking in passengers for flights at airports free of charge.
The DownDectector website, which tracks user-reported Internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta.
Later on Friday, Vasiliauskas said that passenger check-in systems at Lithuanian airports are back to normal.
“Ground handling companies operating at Lithuanian airports inform us that almost all passenger check-in systems are functioning normally again after today's global IT outage,” said the spokesman for LTOU said.
Pharmacy group affected
The Benu chain of pharmacies has reported that it has been affected by the outages.
“All the forces of our IT team are working hard to restore the normal operation of pharmacies as soon as possible,” Indrė Brazauskaitė, head of Benu, told LRT.lt on Friday afternoon. “Firstly, we are focusing on the pharmacies with the highest volume of customers and those located near medical institutions, in order to eliminate disruptions and ensure smooth operations. Benu pharmacies located near Kaunas and Santaros Clinics, Klaipėda and Šiauliai Republican Hospitals have already been restored and are working smoothly.”
According to her, IT failures have been resolved in one-third of all Benu pharmacies in the country.
“We expect to resolve the glitches in the remaining pharmacies in the Benu network shortly as well,” she added.
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