Global IT outage what does it all mean?
A mass global IT outage has affected companies across the world. Whilst businesses try and mitigate the situation, consumers have fallen victim.
James Bore, a chartered security professional and MD of Bores.com, has joined me to advise on what happened, your consumer rights if your bank was affected and what to look out for.
What happened?
A tool called Crowdstrike Falcon, which is very widely used to protect computers, installed a corrupt file which caused Windows computers it was running on to display a “Blue Screen of Death”
This means that the computer cannot be restarted normally and that the corrupt file cannot be automatically deleted. The security tool is used on some of the most important systems, such as backend servers and public information displays.
Whilst the fix is relatively easy, it does involve a person having to interact with each and every computer on site – it can’t be automated or installed remotely – so implementing the solution will take some time for organisations to recover.
Cyber security expert and author of The Cyber Circuit, James Bore, says:
This is inevitable when we build systems which place efficiency over resilience. Small mistakes have massively disproportionate impacts, and companies need to consider how to continue working without the technology they’ve come to rely on, at least as backups. Customers should be calling for this, as otherwise these incidents will keep happening and continue to cause these problems.”
The outage and your consumer rights
Even where something is outside of the control of a business, such as this recent outage, they must ensure that their customers are not left out of pocket.
Banks complaints
If you have a payment fail or problems with a direct debit and you incur charges, the bank must put you back into the financial position you were in before the problem arose.
If, for example, your monthly mortgage repayment didn’t go out and you incurred a late payment fee, the bank must refund that fee.
Write to the bank outlining the charges and request the refund(s).
If you haven’t been able to access money in your account, try firstly going into your local branch, if you have one. Or try phoning or social media (never giving out personal details) to obtain guidance. Keep a log of everything. If they are unable to help, escalate the complaint.
Put your evidence together, outlining whom you contacted and when. Explain the losses you suffered, what you wanted and the impact of not having money available, both financially and emotionally. Tell the bank what you would like it to do to put matters rights and a suggested amount as compensation.
Give a deadline and say that if you are not fully satisfied with the response you will take the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). If you do not want to accept the offer you can write to the CEO (find the address at https://www.ceoemail.com), outlining why it is not appropriate redress.
If you remain unhappy, you can take the matter to FOS 8 weeks after you made your original complaint or ask the bank for a “deadlock letter”. On receipt of the deadlock letter, you can submit your claim to FOS.
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See How to complain about financial institutions.
Trains
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See Rail strikes, works, delays and cancellations: Your travel and refund rights.
Flights
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Booking, taking and how to complain about holidays
Phones
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Scams
Although the outage affected businesses, Bore warns that scammers will take advantage and use this as a cover to alarm consumers that they at risk. He notes:
The outage will be used by criminals as an opportunity to defraud individuals and businesses. From selling non-existent ‘solutions’ to fake antivirus tools which in reality capture your data, there are a myriad of ways that they take advantage of these sorts of events.”
See Watch out for scam texts and emails!
How to prevent being scammed on marketplaces
Future of cash
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More help with complaining
If you need help with complaining effectively and making sure you are never fobbed off. GET THE BOOK! How To Complain: The ESSENTIAL Consumer Guide to Getting REFUNDS, Redress and RESULTS!
101 Habits of an Effective Complainer to help you become more skilled and assertive when making complaints
