The fast-food chain is addressing the issue but denies a cyberattack
McDonald’s restaurants in several countries, including the UK and Australia, experienced a “technology outage,” which the chain denied was due to a cybersecurity attack. Australia, the UK, Japan, and China were among the affected markets, with disruptions to restaurant, drive-through, and online orders.
In the UK, a franchise owner with 21 branches in the Midlands stated to the BBC that they were unable to serve customers for a 90-minute period on Friday. In Hong Kong, McDonald’s Facebook page reported that self-ordering kiosks and mobile phone orders were “not functioning,” instructing customers to order at the restaurant counter.
McDonald’s stated that the outage happened around 5 a.m. in the UK (12:00 CDT in the US) and that “many markets” were back online by Friday afternoon, though some were still in the process of restoring services.
The global chief information officer of the company, Brian Rice, clarified that the issue was not caused by a cyberattack. He attributed it to an unspecified change in the IT systems managed by an external contractor for McDonald’s, pointing to a “third-party provider during a configuration change.”
In a message to McDonald’s employees and franchise partners, Rice stated, “What happened today has been an exception to the norm, and we are working with absolute urgency to resolve it.”
McDonald’s operates approximately 40,000 outlets globally, including over 14,000 stores in the US.
A spokesperson for McDonald’s in the UK announced that the restaurant outage had been “resolved” in the UK and Ireland. In the UK, the Downdetector website, which tracks app outages, recorded over 1,000 outages on the McDonald’s app on Friday between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m., with a peak around 7 a.m.
On the social media platform X, a customer in Australia reported that it was “impossible to buy anything” via drive-through or online.
A spokesperson for McDonald’s in Australia stated that the issue had impacted restaurants “nationwide,” but all outlets had since reopened.
Japan was also affected, with McDonald’s Japan’s X account confirming a “system failure” that impacted stores.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and ask that you please wait for a while until the service is restored,” read a translation of the social media post.
Due to a system disruption, numerous McDonald’s outlets in Japan ceased taking in-person and mobile customer orders, as reported by a spokesperson. McDonald’s operates nearly 3,000 outlets in the country.
On Friday afternoon, the hashtag “McDonald’s collapsed” became the fifth most popular search term on China’s Weibo social media platform.
McDonald’s is one of the most popular Western fast-food chains in China, boasting more than 5,000 stores. However, its main competitor, KFC, has nearly double that number.
On Friday, McDonald’s posted an update on Weibo, stating that the issue had been resolved and adding, “Love having you back!” However, several individuals commented that they had already purchased a meal from KFC instead.
There were also unverified reports from social media users regarding issues in Germany and New Zealand, along with news reports of problems in Sweden.
