Local flights, banks in PPC also disrupted by global IT outage

Local flights and banking institutions in Puerto Princesa City have also been hit by a global cyber outage affecting services from technology companies Microsoft and CrowdStrike.

Nick Rascal, Area IV-B manager of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), said that on the evening of July 19, two Cebu Pacific flights and on the morning of July 20, the first flight were cancelled due to a global IT problem.

“If you are picked up, you can do normal. Two cancelled flights – 5J638 on saka 5J648 ng Cebu Pacific,” Rascal told Palawan News on Saturday morning.

He noted that passengers from last night’s cancelled flight waited at the airport all night.

Flight 5J638 departs from Puerto Princesa International Airport (PPIA) to Manila at 06:05 while flight 5J648 departs at 23:45

“So far, normalize nagno flights at naaayos na ng airline,” he added.

Disruptions were also reported in the banking sector yesterday. Dingdong Arzaga, manager of BDO San Pedro, one of the affected branches, said the outage occurred around 1:30 p.m.

“Ang alam ko halos hit lahat – majority – Metrobank, RCBC, kami. Halos ganoen. Pero kami, yong Rizal Avenue takes online. Actually, kami naman ang ATM works. Take a look at Rizal Avenue online. Kahapon hindi sila nakapag closes transactions, ginagawa and ngayon. Na magawa yon ngayon, lahat ng transactions, puwede na,” Arzaga told Palawan News.

He added that normal operations are expected to resume later today once the issues are fully resolved. He said there was no panic as the IT department immediately updated and understood the cause of the issue.

CrowdStrike, the US technology company involved, stated on its website on July 19 (9:13 p.m. ET) that it is “actively working with customers affected by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”

It also clarified that Mac and Linux hosts were not affected and that the issue was “not a cyberattack.”

“The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been implemented. We are referring customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide full and ongoing public updates on our blog,” CrowdStrike advised, urging organizations to communicate through official channels.

“We understand the seriousness of the situation and apologize for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all affected customers to ensure systems are up and running again and they can provide the services their customers rely on,” the statement said.

George Kurtz, founder and CEO of CrowdStrike, indicated that the disruption was caused by an issue with the software “Falcon Sensor,” which experts said led to crashes in Microsoft Windows, resulting in the “Blue Screen of Death.”

“We have mobilized CrowdStrike to help you and your teams. If you have questions or need additional assistance, please contact your CrowdStrike representative or Technical Support,” Kurtz said.

“We know that adversaries and malicious actors will attempt to exploit these types of events. I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure you reach out to official CrowdStrike representatives. Our blog and technical support remain the official channels for the latest updates,” he added.