This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. It felt like everything I believed in was suddenly collapsing. This is the story of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia with a dark secret of the school's head teacher. This was someone I respected above anyone else. And the investigation led by students he's trying to silence. This is World of Secrets, catching my teacher. All episodes are available now, wherever you get your BBC podcast. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte Gallagher and at 15 hours GMT on Friday, the 13th of November, these are our main stories. A global Microsoft outage hits schools, doctors and businesses in more than 70 countries. Human skulls are discovered inside Haiti's National Stadium. After troops from El Salvador seize it from a gang who'd held it for two years. The FBI says North Korean hackers used fake video calls in a $400 million crypto hack. Also in this podcast. Now here inside the cliffs, you can watch what was going on in this top secret bunker. Well, it's 1940s computer. We go inside a secret Second World War location. Schools, banks, health and emergency services around the world have been hit by a huge Microsoft outage. It's caused major disruption in more than 70 countries. The tech giant is scrambling to fix the issue, but with so many of us relying on its products, such as outlook and teams, the problems are being felt globally. We can't actually request prescriptions for our patients and GPs can't actually send us confidential patient information so they can't tell us when this changes to medicines. We had a business meeting scheduled for today and had invited our business partners. But most of them couldn't use email, so we had to postpone it. Can't communicate with the students or other teachers, so it's been tough. It's very strange, but I feel like it's a sign of what's to come in the future. I mean, we rely so heavily on technology and these things these days. And I feel like now, just just go to show it when these systems go down. We're all sort of a bit lost. We don't know what to do. I wouldn't be upset because it's Friday, so I'm okay. Jake Moore is a cybersecurity advisor for ESET, a leading cybersecurity firm. But it does hammer home the point that our infrastructure is relatively old. And going back to the fact that we are just using a few providers, cloud providers, email providers and so on, that when these things go wrong, they go catastrophically wrong. The company says it's not found any evidence that malicious activity calls the problems. And in its latest update, it reported that broader improvements were being observed in North America and Europe. Just before we recorded this podcast, our technology reporter Laura Crest told me how the efforts to bring the systems back were going. It's a very slow step by step fix. It has been now more than 20 hours that we've had this outage. But some people may see that they're starting to slowly get their emails back for outlook. And the reason it has taken so long is that engineers, they've hit this quite frustrating loop where essentially they would restart a server and let some people back in. But the sudden rush of all that returning traffic that overwhelms the system and then it knocks it off line again. So instead of flipping a big switch, they're essentially the letting traffic traffic back in, but it's very slow. So that's why it's taking a long time. They're trying to prevent another crash. And are there some businesses, some people that have been affected more than others by this outage? Essentially anyone who uses Microsoft 365 virtually every set to that relies on these modern office tools. It would have been affected in some way. I certainly was this morning, but I was trying to get a hold of emails and things like that. But in terms of the impact, you know, it will be things like health services, schools, universities, those that need to use those kind of urgent communications have had to really use like backup communication plans. I know headteachers, you know, asking parents to phone in rather than send emails and it's affected 70 countries across the world. You know, police forces as well, emergency services. It really has hit every sector and big questions for Microsoft because people will be wanting to know what they're going to do to stop this happening again. Yeah, it's a good question. I think it's inevitable that we may well see something like this again. I'm sure Microsoft what it's going to do is it's tight in its checks to stop these servers from tripping over each other again. But, you know, experts will be sort of asking, are you going to have a plan B for this for next time? Because this was something that seemed to be quite unexpected when it happened. You know, they've stressed this isn't a cyber attack. This is essentially what happens when servers have dropped offline during routine checks. But too much digital traffic has been dumped onto the remaining servers and overloaded them. That's basically what has happened here. But it's essential really that we never have this kind of huge scale outage again because it really has caused so much. That's an option today. That was Laura Cress. Well, does the chaos we've seen due to the Microsoft outage prompt a conversation about how reliant we are on its services? James Coppnell spoke to Professor Joanna Weaver from the Tech Policy Design Institute in Australia. We have just pretty much survived an entire day here in Australia with very minimal email connectivity through outlook at all. I think for some people you might say that sounds like a blissful way to have a work day. But it's pretty, it focuses the mind on the dependency that we have on particular platforms. Yeah, does it reveal then a vulnerability in human-kind systems if we are so dependent on a system, a platform? Yeah, it does. And somewhat ironically, actually, the Australian Government released a report yesterday just before the incident happened. Warning, they sort of put the risk of AI discovered vulnerabilities as the highest threat. And the second highest threat was our dependence on particular types of infrastructure. So this is not a unknown problem, but I think having something like this happen where, you know, literally everyone I know in Australia was unable to send emails through the outlook Microsoft products today. It's quite different to have an abstract report and then to have a day of being unable to email. Do you think that it could lead to some sort of change? Well, we have been having conversations around dependencies and I think at an individual business level, people have been using different email accounts. There's been a lot of Gmail action today, a lot of messaging apps. At an organizational level, we actually need to put in place redundancies so that we have these backups in place. And so, yes, I hope it does, but it also depends on what happens next. I think we saw with the cloud strike outage, which happened in 2024. It also had a similar focusing of the mind. And yet we still have this issue without significant change haven't happened in the two years since then. So it is something that individual companies need to be really focused on. That was Professor Joanna Weaver speaking to James Coppnell. In a previous podcast, we reported on dramatic events surrounding the National Football Stadium in Haiti. Soldiers from El Salvador and now in control of it after a military operation. The venue is being run by 2000 troops from the Central American country. They alongside the Haitian police seized it from the country's most powerful gang who'd held it for the last two years. El Salvador released a video showing armed robots during a raid against the gangs at the stadium in Porter Prince. Haiti has been ravaged by gang violence for years. But since the assassination of President Moes in 2021, the situation has become even worse. Anna Maria Rora is from BBC Monday. We have seen dramatic images basically posted by Mr. Buckele, the president of El Salvador himself. He says that also several human skulls has been discovered in that place that was in the hands of gangs for two years. But important is that Mr. Buckele says that from now this stadium will be the base for further operations in Haiti against the gangs. And he says also that this operation was coordinated with Haiti military forces and Haiti police. But it's important to say that these troops that has sent Mr. Buckele in the last weeks that are least 2000 milliliters from El Salvador has raised questions. Because they are not acting in Haiti under the mandate of the UN backed mission anti gangs in Haiti, which is the gang suppression force. What are they doing in Haiti, then? And what is El Salvador getting from this? Well, El Salvador is part of the UN backed gang suppression force, which is an anti gang mission in Haiti. But in October 18, four members from El Salvador of this UN backed mission were kidnapped by gangs. And since then Mr. Buckele has been sending troops to El Salvador.
But they are commanding operations. We have seen this week also the operation against the headquarters of a gang of a leader of a gang that reports at least 20 deaths. And we have seen also this operation in the stadium. That was Ana Maria Rora. Still to come in this podcast. When he says we all knew San paper is going out in the field, he's 100% wrong. He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball temper with San Paper. That's complete in utter nonsense. The sandpaper scandal that's still haunting Australian cricket. This is the media. I'll be destroyed. This is World of Secrets catching my teacher. All episodes are available now. Wherever you get your BBC podcasts. It's the film that convinced Americans the second world war was worth fighting. The reason to be in Hollywood that is really quite a terrifying situation. And its production is an extraordinary story in itself. Ronald Reagan had been named as the potential lead. Join me, Misha Glenning and three expert guests for a special live edition of In Our Time, where we discuss Casa Blanca. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. And then the next thing he says is, hold on, we're going down. And that's really something you don't want it ever here in Pilots today. Discover stories from people whose lives and experiences are anything but ordinary. I knew from my very, very earliest memories that the FBI was chasing us. What my parents did to me was a crime. I barely survived. Lives less ordinary. From the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the global news podcast. The US says North Korean state sponsored hackers have stolen more than $400 million in cryptocurrency. The FBI says fake video calls were used to steal identities of more than 900 victims. G.G.R.N. is following the story for us. This is a really significant operation which, as you said, the FBI says, more than $400 million of cryptocurrency was stolen. Now the FBI calls it a sophisticated social engineering operation, also known as face stealer. It's literally stealing faces and identities. But essentially what's happening is hackers were impersonating trusted contacts through hijack social media accounts and then they invite their victims to fake video calls on platforms resembling Zoom or Microsoft Teams. And then they play pre-recorded footage of someone that the victim recognizes and then pretends there's a problem. And if you've been on any virtual meetings, you know that sometimes there's an audio problem or a visual glitch or something that makes you have to leave the room and then come join via another link or maybe even download some new software to help you fix it. And that's essentially what they targeted. By these people going on these new links without knowing, installing malicious software that these hackers were trying to infiltrate. And in doing so, it gave the hackers access to sensitive information, communications and even potentially cryptocurrency wallets. What's interesting is there's another element of they were actually recording the videos themselves so that they can repeat the process moving forwards and then have new victims that they can try and infiltrate again and again and again. Now the FBI hasn't named any specific companies, but they did reveal that their web three companies, their cryptocurrency companies, but they're also open source development software engineers and developers and maintenance. So that kind of widens the threats to not just crypto, but also wider tech companies. This sounds like a very lucrative scam. So why is North Korea turning to cryptocurrency theft? And where is this money going? For North Korea cryptocurrency theft really is a way to generate revenue outside of traditional banking systems and avoid sanctions. Now we know that North Korea is heavily sanctioned already and so it has limited access to international markets. We can't say for sure where exactly the money is being used, but the fact that the US is saying it's state sponsored, the Pyongyang government is really encouraging and supporting North Korean hackers to infiltrate all these different companies and individuals. There's a sense that perhaps it is funding the regime's weapon system and its nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions. So it's really part of a wider pattern of cybercrime that's attributed to North Korea. But the very nature of cryptocurrency means that it can be transferred across borders relatively quickly. And although transactions can be traced, it's definitely harder to do so on blockchain. That was GG on. One of the premier leagues, once most dominant clubs Manchester United, has had a merry-go-round of managers over recent years. And now the ride is ready for Mauricio Pochettino, who'll replace the sacked Michael Carrick. The club has now confirmed the current head of the US men's national team is on his way to old Trafford, as our football correspondent Andy Swiss explains. Manchester United have released a statement. They say that Mauricio Pochettino has agreed to become the Manchester United men's head coach from the 18th of November. So that is Wednesday next week. They say the club has reached an agreement with the US soccer federation from Mauricio and his staff to be released after the conclusion of their responsibilities with the US men's national team. They say the Argentinian is renowned for his high intensity attacking style of football, his dedication to building strong cohesive teams and his outstanding record of developing individual players. So that statement confirms that although Pochettino will be the next Manchester United manager, he won't be taking charge until next week. That is because the USA men's national team have two fourth coming matches against Haiti. The first of those matches is tomorrow. The second of them is on Tuesday next week. So Pochettino won't join up with Manchester United until after the second of those matches. United have long targeted Mauricio Pochettino as far back as 2018. They were sounding him out about potentially becoming Manchester United manager. So finally they have their man. He's a hugely experienced manager, especially in the Premier League. He started out at Southampton then went to Tottenham where he spent five years guided them to second place in the Premier League. He guided them to the Champions League Final in 2019. He then had spells at Paris Saint-Germain and at Chelsea before joining up with the USA men's national team. He guided them to the last 16 at the World Cup this summer and now he is off to join Manchester United. That was Andy Swiss. Now to a cheating scandal that's engulfing Australian cricket almost a decade after it happened. The Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins has broken his silence over allegations made by a former teammate about ball tampering. The controversy resurfaced last week after the former batsman Usman Kauarja made the claims in his autobiography. In a news conference that lasted for more than an hour, Cummins flatly rejected that the whole of their team knew about the use of sandpaper to manipulate the ball in South Africa in 2018. When he says we all knew if by that he means that when you sandpaper is going out in the field, he's 100% wrong. I've said that consistently for the last eight years, I did not know that was happening. But I think Usman actually says things that actually far more serious than that. He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball tamper with sandpaper. That's complete and utter nonsense. Usman's a friend but friends aren't casual with each other's lives and reputations. In his book, Usman is being casual with my lives and the lives of many others and I think Australian cricket. I support his right to tell a story 100%. I'm really glad that he feels like he can but we have to be accountable for the things that we say and do. The scandal dubbed one of the darkest chapters in Australian cricket led to lengthy bans for three players and sparked years of debate over who knew what. Our reporter in Queensland Simon Atkinson told us more about Pat Cummins news conference. He wanted to come out and address this. I think he was hoping to just draw a line and the things and move on at one point. A minder from cricket Australia came to try and wrap things up and he sort of shoot them away so he could answer more questions. I mean, the really emotional bits came when he addressed his relationship with Usman Kwaj. You know, this is a man who he's played with for a long time. Someone who is a friend. He was asked, you know, how is that relationship now? He was a bit coy about it. That's when he really started to show that emotion, I think. He said he had exchanged some messages with Kwaj over recent days and he planned to speak to him at some point. But clearly, the relationship is now very rocky and as we heard there, he felt that he'd been casual with his life with the lives of many others. In terms of key things, he effectively reiterated what he said throughout. He and some of the other bowlers involved in that game, all of whom still play in the Australian team, despite it being eight and a half years ago, put out a few years ago saying that they had no idea that some people was being brought under the pitch. And effectively, he just reiterated that again and again. And huge questions for cricket Australia, Simon. Yeah, there are. I mean, cricket Australia is in difficult position. This is something which has has never really been.
signed to history. When Steve Smith, one of the players who was banned in this, goes and plays, especially against England, he gets jeered, fans were waved, bits of sandpaper. This isn't something that's been forgotten. It really was, you know, and still remain a real dark moment in Australian sport. The image of Steve Smith crying at a press conference when he was being banned and admitting his involvement is probably one of the most defining images of Australian sport over the past decade. But yes, cricket Australia have said they're not going to reopen the investigation, they say they're happy with their integrity processes. Cummins today, and that press conference said, well, it was up to cricket Australia, whether they did that or not, he didn't express an opinion really either way. But they have got a big problem because, you know, eight years on, you've got this kind of generation of Australian cricketers at war really, David Warner, one of the players who was also banned, he'd backed us and co-adjust comments. And he came up very strongly after this press conference, accused in Cummins of throwing a coagia under the bus. And he talked about the impact it had on his family. So this isn't going away. It does feel that cricket Australia is going to have to do more because it really is a point that people in Australia are very concerned about. That was Simon Atkinson in Queensland. Finally, now for a trip back in history. During the Second World War, part of Britain's defence against Nazi Germany was conducted deep underground. Part of it happened just beneath the famous white cliffs of Dover on England, South East and Coast in a secret bunker. After the war, it was buried and long forgotten. But now it's been unearthed and open to the public. David Cilito reports. Dover had a nickname in the Second World War. Hellfire corner. German guns try to achieve what Nazi bombers fail to do. From the French coast, high velocity guns bombard our ship. There were no bluebirds over the white cliffs. Just huge guns. And directing them, a place so secret its existence was classified until the 1980s. And for decades, this underground command point was lost. The old military sites had been deemed to be an eyesore. And it had been buried. More than 50 years on, the site is now owned by the National Trust. And it's been doing some detective work. Everything kept here was buried, yes. Gentlemen, just introduce yourself. You are. I'm Gordon Myers. I'm a volunteer. I've been for about 15 years now. And I'm John Barker and I'm the project lead. So Gordon, we're standing on top of the white cliffs of Dover here, aren't we? You didn't know where this secret plotting room was. You just have this very sketchy map in front of us. You have an idea, but that's all it is. This has been detective work. And a lot of digging then. This has been 15 years in the making. And this was the needle in the haste. Right, so you are now at the base of the main shaft. This was the original entrance. And there would have been steel rungs into the wall here. And that is how the soldiers would have come down. The first thing that strikes you, these very heavy doors. Rusty hugs where the hungo coats are still here. And everywhere, the peeling paint. And I say walking through first another very heavy iron door. And a third that takes me to the one large room. You probably hear the sound of my voice changing. This underneath the rivets, the rust, and the remnants was the beating heart of the battle of the channel, the plotting room. Line up at 150 degrees, 8000 yards. What is plotting? The plotting is taking all the inputs, things like your wind speed direction, your humidity, and coordinates of the target. I'm putting them all into a computer. There was a computer down here. It was a computer here. We're talking about 1941-42. You're talking '41, yeah. '41. There's a computer. It is an electromechanical computer that is capable of providing a firing solution. Prepare for action. They are firing out at sea. They're firing to seaward. Now here inside the cliffs, you can watch what was going on in this top secret bunker, where it's 1940s computer. Ready for action, final fire. David Cilito reporting. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at
[email protected]. You can also now watch our episodes in full. Just search for the global news podcast on YouTube. This edition was mixed by Sharmini Ashton Griffiths and the producers, Wishawon Leahy and Stephanie Zapperson. The editor is Karin Martin. I'm Charlotte Gallagher. Until next time. Goodbye. And the investigation led by students, he's trying to silence. All episodes are available now, wherever you get your BBC podcast.
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