Friday’s widespread global technology outage did not affect critical organisations in Lithuania, even if it will take some time for the affected systems to fully be restored, says Liudas Ališauskas, director of the National Cyber Security Centre (NKSC).
“We are not aware of any very significant damage in Lithuania. Only one organisation has been affected,” Ališauskas told LRT RADIO on Saturday.
“Critical or highly important organisations that ensure energy, water supply, and other functions are not affected,” he added.
On Friday, Ryanair and Wizz Air, which operate flights in Lithuania, reported online check-in and flight booking issues. Benu, a chain of 85 pharmacies across Lithuania, was also affected by the outage.
According to the NKSC director, the speed of system recovery depends on the capacity of each organisation’s IT team and there was no way to centrally or automatically fix the systems.
“This means that IT specialists will have to go to each computer to perform actions, which will be very time-consuming,” he said.
The incidents were linked to an update to the CrowdStrike Falcon antivirus software, causing an issue with Windows software.
The outage hit businesses worldwide, with reports of grounded or delayed flights, disrupted television broadcasts, and affected banking services. Widespread disruptions were reported on Friday in the US, UK, Germany, India, New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere.
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