Capitec, Airlink among local companies affected by global Microsoft outage

JOHANNESBURG - Banks, airlines, telecoms, and even retail stores have been severely affected by a global outage caused by Microsoft.

An update from a cybersecurity company affected Microsoft cloud services updates, causing the system to crash.

ALSO READ: Microsoft says taking 'mitigation actions' after service issues

The issue has resulted in a domino effect, impacting banks, retailers, airports, and news networks.

Capitec Bank and Airlink are among some of the local companies that have been impacted by Microsoft’s global outage.

However, in other countries, the impact has been far worse.

Steven Werner, station manager of KIIS Radio in Sydney, Australia, said all radio stations in the country were offline for more than three hours.

“People not being able to broadcast. All the broadcasters [were] uploading videos to Instagram and Facebook of them sitting in studio saying: ‘Well, we broke the tech, we can’t use it’.”

Werner highlighted other sectors affected.

“Flights are delayed, and people are not being able to check in properly at the airport. The biggest mobile network in Australia, Telstra, is also being affected. 

“Retailers are being affected here because people are not being able to pay unless they have cash because the EFTs [Electronic Funds Transfers] are not working for them to use their cards.”

Several major airlines across the world have been grounded due to the Microsoft outage.