March 15, 2024 at 02:37PM
McDonald’s attributed a global outage to a third-party provider’s configuration change, not a cyberattack. CIO Brian Rice confirmed the outage’s start and resolution, noting ongoing efforts to restore affected markets. The issue impacted establishments worldwide, affecting operational and payment systems, with some locations temporarily closing. Affected employees shared their challenges on social media.
It seems that McDonald’s experienced a global IT outage due to a third-party service provider’s configuration change, not a cyberattack. This resulted in the closure of numerous McDonald’s fast-food restaurants worldwide, impacting countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, and New Zealand. The company’s Chief Information Officer, Brian Rice, clarified that the outage was not the result of a cybersecurity event but rather a third-party provider’s configuration change. The issue is in the process of being resolved, with some markets already back online. The outage led to temporary closures and system outages, including point-of-sale (POS) system issues, which affected the ability to take orders and process payments. McDonald’s is working to restore normal operations and address the impact on affected stores and systems.