Olympic Games organisers in Paris calmed fears on Friday that a global IT glitch had compromised sensitive security data just over a week from the planned lavish opening ceremony along the river Seine.
"Paris 2024 is aware of global technical issues affecting Microsoft software," said a spokesperson. "These issues are impacting Paris 2024's IT operations.
"Technical teams have been fully mobilised to mitigate the impacts of these issues and we have activated contingency plans in order to continue operations," the spokesperson added.
Microsoft said the issue began on Thursday evening with users of its Azure cloud platform running cybersecurity software CrowdStrike Falcon.
George Kurtz, CrowdStrike's CEO, said in a post on several social media platforms that a fix had been rolled out for the problem. He described the problem as a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.
Access
In Paris, the faulty systems affected the distribution of badges allowing athletes, officials and reporters access to the Olympic facilities.
Next Friday evening, around 10,000 athletes will set sail in a flotilla of vessels to travel six kilometres along the river Seine as part of the opening ceremony.
Tony Estanguet, who heads the organising committee, added: "This does not call into question the security of access to critical and essential information.
"On the other hand, it has slowed down operations to welcome new athletes and all the delegations. But we are adapting."
Flight chaos
From Amsterdam to Zurich, Singapore to Hong Kong, airport operators flagged technical issues that were disrupting their services.
Some airports told planes they could not land, while in others airline staff began checking in passengers manually.
Spanish airport operator Aena AENA.MC reported a computer systems incident at all Spanish airports led to flight delays.
"We are working to solve it as soon as possible, the airport operator said in a post on social media. "Meanwhile, operations are continuing with manual systems."
Troy Hunt, a cybersecurity consultant, said the scale of the IT failure was unprecedented.
(With newswires)
