A global outage of Microsoft software affected the IT operations of the Olympic organizing committee on Friday, July 19, disrupting the accreditation system and affecting the arrivals of national delegations at the Olympic Village.
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They will not be spared anything. Exactly one week before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, after the acute political crisis, the vagaries of the Seine and a strike notice by the dancers on July 26, the organizing committee of the Olympic Games (Cojo) was forced to recognize, Friday July 19, that its operations were also affected by the breakdown affecting Microsoft software throughout the world. In a press release, Paris 2024 specifies that “these problems disrupt the IT operations” of the Games but assures in the process that its teams “are fully mobilized to reduce the impact of these problems.”
Asked by France Infothe president of the Cojo, Tony Estanguet, explained that he was working on this new jolt “to see how to readapt.” “For the moment, operations are continuing,” he explained, hoping “that Microsoft can resolve this outage very quickly.” For him, this new demonstration of Murphy’s law “does not call into question the security of access to critical and essential information, but on the other hand, in operations on the ground, to welcome new athletes, all delegations, to issue accreditations, it slows down our operations.”
A source within the committee explained to AFP that the outage could disrupt the arrival of athletes and national delegations at the Olympic village, which opened on Thursday. For several hours, traffic has been interrupted at airports, and connections have been suspended by certain airlines at a time when athletes are arriving en masse in France. But the computer systems of the ADP group (formerly Aéroports de Paris) seem to be spared. In its press release, Paris 2024 explains that “the impact on the activities of certain airlines is disrupting the arrival of some delegations in Paris”. Message loops have been opened with the delegations by the Cojo to “ensure their reception in the best possible conditions”.
Among other disruptions, the AFP source at the Cojo explains that the accreditation system is altered, preventing some people from collecting their badges, which could disrupt delegations as much as journalists. Regarding the work on the Parisian sites, the organizers of the Olympic Games specify in their press release that “the operations concerning the assembly of the (Olympic) sites continue normally, without risk to the deadlines.”
The American tech giant Microsoft, affected by a global outage, said it was taking “mitigation measures” while the problem was resolved. Several stock exchanges woke up urgently and suffered a slight decline, including those in Paris, London, Milan, Frankfurt and Hong Kong. The CEO of the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike explained that his company “is actively working with customers affected by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. This is not a security incident or a cyberattack.”
