Several online services of the UAE government experienced disruptions due to a cyber outage that impacted major institutions globally, Khaleej Times reported. Dubai International Airport (DXB) also reported temporary operational impacts.
The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mofa) advised the public to refrain from using its online portals after some of their electronic systems were affected by the “global technical glitch.” Authentication services were among those impacted. Mofa stated, “We advise customers not to make any transactions until this problem is resolved.”
The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (Mohre) issued a similar advisory, highlighting issues in some of its digital services. “Our technical team is currently working with the relevant authorities to overcome this challenge,” Mohre said.
Dubai International Airport (DXB) resumed operations swiftly after the system outage affected the check-in process for some airlines in Terminals 1 and 2. A DXB spokesperson confirmed in a Khaleej Times report, “DXB is operating normally following a global system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines. The affected airlines promptly switched to an alternate system, allowing normal check-in operations to resume swiftly.”
Etihad Airways and Emirates also reported minimal impacts. An Etihad spokesperson noted, “Flights operate as normal on Friday (19 July) following the global IT issue which is impacting organisations worldwide. However, there may be some limited delays to services across its network as a result of the global disruption.” Emirates added, “There may be delays to some flight timings later today (July 19) due to knock-on effects from delayed departures from some airports around our network.”
Flydubai and Air Arabia confirmed their operations were unaffected by the outage. “The third-party IT issue has not impacted our operations. We continue to monitor closely and we are in touch with the supplier,” stated a flydubai spokesperson. Air Arabia also confirmed no impact on their operations.
The outage, attributed to a bad update pushed by US-based cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, caused widespread disruptions. The update led to crashes in PCs and servers running their software. Rayad Kamal Ayub, managing director of Rayad Group, explained, “Crowdstrike is a global provider of security technology and services focused on identifying advanced threats and targeted attacks.” He added that the issue might have been caused by an incompatible update or a potential malicious attack.
Airports in Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and India, along with major US carriers Delta, United, and American Airlines, were among those affected by the outage.