South Western Railway and NHS ticket machines affected by worldwide Microsoft outage, Bournemouth Airport and Southampton Airport ‘largely unaffected’

A MAJOR worldwide IT outage is affecting services across the area, including transport and surgeries.

Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike says its software update triggered worldwide Microsoft IT outages, which were first reported late yesterday (Thursday) evening.

CEO George Kurtz said in a statement it was “actively working” with customers impacted by the incident.

"This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

A South Western Railway spokesperson said: “Due to IT issues all ticket vending machines are currently non operational.

“Please purchase your ticket online, on the train, or speak to a member of station staff. We apologise for the inconvenience this causes.”

Microsoft is reportedly taking “mitigation actions” and says it is investigating issues with cloud services, and an issue impacting several of its apps and services.

NHS England said the problems were affecting its appointment and patient record system, and causing disruption in the “majority” of GP practices.

A spokesperson said: “The NHS has long standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP.

“There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.”

The Walkford pub in Walkford had to move to cash-only, with an online post saying: “Due to an issue out of our control and the current national outage on Microsoft computer systems we are currently only able to accept cash only.

“We are currently unable to tell you when this issue will be resolved but will post an update as soon as our till systems are back up and running as usual.”

A spokesperson for Bournemouth Airport said: “The airport's IT systems aren't directly affected but we are aware of issues being experienced by some airlines. The advice for passengers is to check with their airline for the very latest information.”

Southampton Airport was “largely unaffected” by the issue, with a statement adding: “At present a small number of airlines have moved to manual check-in and some retailers are only accepting cash payments.”

Shops have also been affected, with Morrisons in Totton currently only accepting cash payments. Cllr Alex Wade, a member of Hythe and Dibden Parish Council warned many shops in Hythe, including Waitrose, were only taking cash payments.

New Forest District Council said it was “currently assessing” the impact on its systems. A spokesperson said: “This may have some impact on what you can do on our website and with some of our payments. We are working to resolve any issues.”

An online post by Hampshire County Council Highways said it was experiencing IT issues which was affecting services. It added: “Until the situation is resolved please only contact us for emergency highway issues.”

Dorset Police was “not aware” of any issues affecting services, while Hampshire police said it was also without problems.