2024-07-20 01:37

NEW YORK, July 19 (Reuters) - Some information systems at Exelon Corp (EXC.O) , opens new tab and its local electric and natural gas utilities were affected by the global tech outage, the U.S. power company said on Friday. Exelon, which is based in Chicago and is one of the largest electric companies in the United States, said the outages were limited to servers and some computers and did not cause any new customer outages or affect bill payments. "As a result of a third-party worldwide technology issue, we have implemented processes to continue to support operations, including processing and responding to electric and natural gas emergencies and outages safely and reliably," Exelon said in a statement. "We are continuing to assess the impact of this third-party event." Several U.S. power utilities, including one run by the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, reported IT issues in connection with worldwide cyber outages across numerous industries following an update by CrowdStrike (CRWD.O) , opens new tab for Microsoft Windows hosts. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/some-exelon-information-systems-affected-by-global-cyber-outage-2024-07-19/

2024-07-20 01:34

SYDNEY, July 20 (Reuters) - Australia's cyber intelligence agency said on Saturday that "malicious websites and unofficial code" were being released online claiming to aid recovery from Friday's global digital outage, which hit media, retailers, banks and airlines. Australia was one of many countries affected by the outage that caused havoc worldwide after a botched software update from CrowdStrike. On Saturday, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) - the country's cyber intelligence agency - said "a number of malicious websites and unofficial code are being released claiming to help entities recover from the widespread outages caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident". On its website, the agency said its cyber security centre "strongly encourages all consumers to source their technical information and updates from official CrowdStrike sources only". Cyber Security Minister Clare O'Neil said on social media platform X on Saturday that Australians should "be on the lookout for possible scams and phishing attempts". Friday's outage hit Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA.AX) , opens new tab, the country's largest bank, which said some customers were unable to make PayID payments, an issue later resolved. National airline Qantas (QAN.AX) , opens new tab and Sydney airport said planes were delayed but still flying. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said late on Friday that there had been no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or emergency phone systems. CrowdStrike - which previously reached a market cap of about $83 billion - is a major cybersecurity provider, with close to 30,000 subscribers globally. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/australia-warns-malicious-websites-after-cyber-outage-2024-07-20/

2024-07-20 00:41

July 19 (Reuters) - Chrysler parent Stellantis (STLAM.MI) , opens new tab paid $190.7 million in civil penalties for failing to meet U.S. fuel economy requirements for 2019 and 2020, and owes another $459.7 million in outstanding penalties, government documents seen by Reuters show. The penalties, paid in March and May, were disclosed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which administers the Corporate Average Fuel Economy program, on a government website. The disclosure shows the significant compliance costs to meet U.S. fuel rules even as automakers are spending billions of dollars to build electric vehicles. Stellantis, which also owns Fiat, Peugeot and other brands, said the penalties were incurred before it was created in 2021. Stellantis said the penalties are "not indicative of the company’s direction," saying that it is investing more than 50 billion euros ($54.39 billion) worldwide to produce EVs, including two dozen U.S. market EVs by 2030. The automaker and the NHTSA on Friday both confirmed Reuters' calculation of the outstanding penalties. The Italian-American automaker in 2023 paid a record-setting $235.5 million for the 2018 and 2019 model years in fuel economy penalties and $156.6 million in penalties for the 2016 and 2017 model years. In March 2022, the NHTSA reinstated a sharp increase in penalties for automakers whose vehicles do not meet fuel efficiency requirements for 2019 and beyond, nearly tripling the penalties. Last year, the NHTSA said its proposal to hike fuel economy standards through 2032 would cost the industry $14 billion in projected fines over a five-year-period, including $6.5 billion for General Motors (GM.N) , opens new tab, $3 billion for Stellantis and $1 billion for Ford Motor (F.N) , opens new tab. But under the rules finalized last month, the auto industry is collectively expected to face a total of $1.83 billion in fines from 2027 through 2031 -- and it could be as little as nothing, the NHTSA said. ($1 = 0.9194 euros) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/chrysler-parent-stellantis-paid-1907-million-us-fuel-economy-penalties-2024-07-19/

2024-07-19 23:20

July 19 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) , opens new tab said it is working to restore service to automated teller machines (ATMs) affected by a global digital outage while a majority of its ATMs are operating normally, according to an emailed statement on Friday. The largest U.S. bank declined to comment on how many of its ATMs were offline. It has 16,000 ATMs across the U.S. and 4,800 branches. Financial firms were among many snarled by a global digital outage on Friday that caused hourslong disruptions to computer systems at hundreds of companies. Bank teller stations were not working at at least two JPMorgan branches in New York, according to employees at different locations who declined to be identified discussing the outage. Both employees said they were unsure when their computers would be restored. Branches have remained open, and at the sites affected by the outages, customers were able to access banking services by making manual transactions with tellers or using ATMs, a source familiar with the situation said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/jpmorgan-says-majority-atms-operating-normally-amid-outages-2024-07-19/

2024-07-19 23:03

July 19 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency exchange Binance's U.S. affiliate on Friday received approval from a federal judge to invest certain customer assets in U.S. Treasury bills. The order frees Binance.US from restrictions levied by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the affiliate said on Friday. Binance will transfer crypto to a third-party custodian not affiliated with the exchange, the order stated. Binance.US operator BAM has also been permitted to invest certain customer fiat funds, custodied at crypto custody firm BitGo, in U.S. Treasury bills. These funds will mature on a rolling four-week basis, provided that no third parties, including Binance entities, are involved in the investment, according the court order. The SEC, in June last year, had sued Binance, its CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao and Binance.US's operator. Binance artificially inflated its trading volumes, diverted customer funds, failed to restrict U.S. customers from its platform and misled investors about its market surveillance controls, according to the SEC's allegations. Later that month, Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, and Binance.US entered into an agreement with the SEC to ensure that U.S. customer assets remain in the United States. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/binanceus-gets-federal-judge-nod-invest-customer-assets-treasury-bills-2024-07-19/

2024-07-19 23:03

EDINBURGH/MADRID/BALTIMORE, July 19 (Reuters) - Air passengers worldwide faced delays, flight cancellations and headaches checking in as airports and airlines were caught up in a massive IT outage that has affected numerous industries ranging from banks to media companies. A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD.O) , opens new tab triggered systems problems for Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab customers that turned into hours of delays for airlines using their software. Some travelers were issued handwritten boarding passes with software inoperative. All told, out of more than 110,000 scheduled commercial flights on Friday, 5,000 have been cancelled globally with more expected, according to global aviation analytics firm Cirium. By comparison, 2,000 flights were cancelled on Thursday, before the software issues. The aviation sector is particularly sensitive to interruptions due to its reliance on closely coordinated schedules run by air-traffic control. Delays can throw off schedules for airports and airlines for the rest of the day. U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) , opens new tab was one of the hardest- hit, with 20% of its flights cancelled, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. Across the United States, Asia and Europe, carriers such as Ryanair (RYA.I) , opens new tab, United (UAL.O) , opens new tab and Air India said they had faced delays or disruption. "Nobody was around to tell us where we could check in when we arrived ... so different groups queued in different places and then in the end someone, after a bottleneck of people was formed, told us to come here," said Ana Rodriguez, a tourist from Mexico, while waiting for a flight in Madrid's Barajas Airport. Even airlines that were not directly affected said they would have to grapple with delays due to the global nature of the disruption. Transportation system issues appeared to be resolving and would be hopefully be back to normal by Saturday, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, adding that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration did not appear affected. FLIGHT DISRUPTIONS Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport, one of the world's busiest and a hub for Delta Air, had the worst disruptions globally, according to FlightRadar24, with 36% of scheduled departures cancelled. Delta resumed some flight departures but warned of additional delays and cancellations. FAA data showed Delta's operations in Atlanta, Minneapolis and New York were still affected. Customers who had flights cancelled were issued travel waivers, the airline said. United said the disruption affected systems used for calculating aircraft weight, check-ins, and its call centers. In Europe, Spanish carrier Iberia said it had managed to avoid flight cancellations. Ryanair had cancelled 2% of its flights, while 38% of its scheduled flights were delayed. HANDWRITTEN BOARDING PASSES The outage sparked chaos for European passengers on what was one of the busiest travel days of the year as schools broke up for holiday. In Edinburgh, a Reuters witness said boarding-pass scanners carried a "server offline message," with the airport saying passengers should not travel to the airport without checking their flight status first. Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Berlin airport and London Gatwick were also affected. In India, airlines at New Delhi's Terminal 3 were giving handwritten boarding passes to flyers, while airport staff were using whiteboards to display gate information, according to an official for the airport. Airports in Hong Kong and Singapore also switched to manual check-in. At Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore, Maryland, Rose Geffrard, 37, a nurse travelling with her two children to a cousin's wedding in Boston, said she spent nearly two hours waiting in a long line to get paper tickets. Spirit Airlines (SAVE.N) , opens new tab personnel had to page through printed passenger manifests before issuing paper tickets and then consulted a printed seating chart to make sure they were not double assigning seats. COMPENSATION QUESTIONS In Europe, airlines are required to compensate passengers for delays of more than three hours but it was unclear to what extent they would be held legally responsible for the outage. Airlines would have to prove the outage was an extraordinary circumstance to not compensate passengers, a spokesperson for European consumer organization BEUC said. Major U.S. airlines in 2022 committed to providing meals for customers delayed by three hours and hotel rooms for stranded passengers if prompted by issues under the airlines' control. Unlike in Europe, there is no legal requirement that airlines in the United States compensate passengers for lengthy delays. It is also not clear if the IT issue will be deemed an airline-caused delay or not. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/air-travel-hit-by-global-cyber-outage-2024-07-19/