Warning post and parcel deliveries could be hit by Crowdstrike IT outage

Parcel deliveries and post are among the services that could face severe delays after an IT outage caused disruption at airports, train stations, banks and GP practices on Friday morning.

Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike said it is "actively working" to fix a "defect" in an update for Microsoft Windows users which sparked the global IT outage.

Major infrastructure ground to a halt after computer systems were knocked offline affecting key sectors across the country.

READ MORE: Mayhem at UK airports amid global IT outage

The outage caused "disruption in the majority of GP practices" in England, while Sky News went off air due to the fault. In a statement, Microsoft said: “We are aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming.”

International delivery experts at Parcelhero warned the IT outage could have "severe knock-on effects" for global supply chains. The major IT outage could lead to disrupted deliveries across the world, the company said.

David Jinks MILT, Parcelhero’s head of consumer research, said: "Many airports, ports, railways and retailers reported problems as a result of the IT outage. Delayed flights and issues with IT systems at airports will impact airfreight. Not only will slots for dedicated airfreight flights be disrupted, but many international goods and packages are transported not only in specially designed cargo planes but also in the cargo holds of passenger aircraft. One thousand flights globally were reported to have been cancelled by Friday mid-morning."

International ports have also been affected, Mr Jinks said, with Poland's largest container terminal asking companies not to send containers to the