Massive cyber outage reported in several countries; hits airlines, companies

US tech giant Microsoft has said it is taking "mitigation actions" after service disruptions caused by technical failures across the world.

"Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions," the company said in a post on social media platform X.

Microsoft said users "may be unable to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services."

"We remain committed in treating this event with the highest priority and urgency while we continue to address the lingering impact for the remaining Microsoft 365 apps that are in a degraded state," it said.

Despite the announcement by Microsoft, there is a growing number of reports of disruption from across the world.

Airports report problems

Berlin airport has halted all flights until 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) due to a technical fault, a spokesperson told Reuters news agency on Friday.

The airport operator BER had earlier said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that check-ins were delayed due to the error.

Amsterdam Schipol Airport in the Netherlands has also said it is affected by a cyber outage, telling travelers wanting to travel on Friday to contact their airline.

Australian companies affected

A number of companies in Australia were hit on Friday by what the country's cyber-security authority said was a "large-scale technical outage."  

"Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies," the office of Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness said in a statement.

"There is no information to suggest it is a cyber security incident. We continue to engage across key stakeholders," the statement on X, formerly Twitter, said.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs said that the outage seemed to have to do with a problem at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, but this was not mentioned in McGuiness's statement.

Among the bodies affect are national broadcaster ABC and Sky News Australia.