Hong Kong officials ‘highly concerned’ over IT outage that caused airport chaos
- Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk is monitoring developments, while airlines resort to processing passengers by hand after global outage
Hong Kong authorities said they were “highly concerned” over an IT outage that disrupted businesses around the world on Friday and threw the city’s air services into disarray, creating long lines at the airport and delaying more than a dozen flights.
Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk Wing-hing was tasked with monitoring developments after disruptions to Microsoft services and applications, as well as problems experienced by Windows devices following a software update from a third-party cybersecurity provider.
A spokesman for the government said its own systems were “operating normally”.
“The deputy secretary has asked government departments to closely keep in view developments under their purview and be prepared to make prompt response, as well as immediate reports where necessary,” he said. “The deputy secretary will also give instructions as necessary.”
The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer had contacted Microsoft to urge the tech company to release solutions to the public as soon as possible and provide support to affected users.
The outage was affecting airlines and airport operators across the world, including those in Germany, Australia, New Zealand and India. The London Stock Exchange was also among those hit.
