Some residents trying to buy groceries or fill up their cars with gas had to scramble for cash because their card payments weren’t working.
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UAE residents didn’t expect to have to carry cash while shopping on Friday afternoon, as technical issues forced some stores to suddenly switch to “cash only” payments. The glitches were reported as a major global cyber outage affected a range of industries from aviation to banking.
Some people who were buying groceries or getting gas for their cars had to rush to get cash because their cards weren’t working, while others couldn’t withdraw cash from ATMs. Travelers were also affected by flight delays.
A shocked resident told Khaleej Times: “On my way back from the meeting, I stopped off at a local grocery store to buy water and milk. The store’s POS (point of sale) was out of order and I was told it was cash only. The ATM next door was also out of order so I had no cash and couldn’t make the payment. Thankfully, my friend’s shop, Ajwa, in Barsha Heights, let me take the items away, with the promise that I would pay later,” Mathew said.
Meanwhile, Geethalakshmi Ramachandran went to fill up a petrol station in Jebel Ali on Friday but was shocked to hear that the station would only accept cash payments. “Luckily I had 50 dirhams,” she said, adding, “I have been informed that some shops and pharmacies will not be able to accept card payments so I think there will be more confusion.”
Geethalakshmi Ramachandran
A global cyber outage affected key services including airports, airlines, banks and government agencies on Friday. Some UAE government online services were affected as well, with Dubai International Airport (DXB) confirming that its operations were temporarily affected.
The system was reportedly caused by an improper update implemented by CrowdStrike, a US-based cybersecurity technology company, which caused PCs and servers running the company’s software to crash and become unrecoverable.
Delayed flights
Travelers also faced problems on Friday. Fazla, a Dubai resident, said her father-in-law was among those affected by the outage. “He was travelling from Dubai to India and the flight was due to take off at 12:50,” she said. At the boarding gate, he was informed that the flight had been delayed indefinitely due to the global power outage.
“There was quite a bit of chaos at the airport. A few flights were affected but airport staff responded quickly. At around 2.30pm he messaged us saying he would be boarding shortly. We hope that everything will be smooth sailing from now on,” she added.
UAE-based travel agencies also faced issues. Noushad Hassan of Al Hind Business Centre told Khaleej Times that his company’s platform was affected. “We have over 1,800 travel agents using our platform in the UAE,” he said. “Airlines are not able to upload their latest fares and fares for all airlines except one or two are not updated on our platform. This means that several travel agents are now unable to issue tickets.”
“There is an issue with the check-in system causing many flights to be delayed as passengers are unable to check in. The issue will continue for at least the next hour or two. However, as this is a global outage we hope it will be resolved soon. We are all closely monitoring the situation,” he added.
Meanwhile, delivery app Careem said in a statement to Khaleej Times: “Our operations are unaffected. Our offices and services are functioning normally.”
