Microsoft outage disrupts global IT; Airlines ground flights; CrowdStrike blames Windows update
Airlines must take care of passengers impacted by global IT outage, Buttigieg says
Speaking on CNBC, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he is “tracking all the various impacts hitting different forms of transportation.”
Buttigieg said the agency has reminded airlines as they deal with the outage of their “responsibilities to take care of passengers if they experience major delays.”
Buttigieg also said public transit systems are running normally despite the ongoing global I.T. outage, but some consumers might encounter websites that are down or ticketing systems with minor problems.
“This wasn’t a cyberattack,” he said but the agency will continue to work with infrastructure and transportation providers to ensure they properly maintain their cyber defenses.
Chicago Department of Aviation monitoring global IT outage
The Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) is monitoring the global IT outage that has impacted air travel nationwide, it said in a statement.
“CDA officials are working diligently with federal and airline partners at both O’Hare and Midway International Airports to restore operations as swiftly as possible,” the department said. “The CDA is committed to providing all necessary assistance to our passengers during this time.”
The CDA encouraged anyone flying out of Chicago airports today to check their flight status before making the trip to the airport.
Long lines but ‘a snowball’s chance’ in Atlanta’s airport
Reporting from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
The ticketing line at Spirit Airlines in Atlanta is hundreds of people long as travelers try to get information about flights.
One traveler near the front says she waited for over fours. Employees calling out specific flight numbers had to shout over the crowd to be heard. When asked if she was confident about leaving Atlanta today, one woman in line said, “A snowball’s chance.”
Orange County Fire Authority says its responses to emergencies were uninterrupted
The Orange County Fire Authority in California said the outage had temporarily affected some of its internal systems, but that its responses to emergency incidents were uninterrupted, and its 78 fire stations did not experience any delays in service.
“Our IT team continues to monitor the situation,” the fire authority said.
What we know about the global Microsoft outage
A routine software update caused cascading chaos today that has engulfed global businesses from airports and banks to retail and law enforcement.
It wasn’t a cyberattack, but was caused by one of the world’s largest cybersecurity companies deploying a flawed update while trying to keep its customers safe from hackers.
CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas, that’s widely used by businesses and government agencies that run on Microsoft computers, said that a defect in one of its updates for computers running the Windows operating system had caused the issue. The result was arguably the largest global information technology outage in history.
Fed says critical systems ‘operating normally’
The Federal Reserve is out with an assurance that its systems are working amid the global tech outage.
“Critical Federal Reserve Systems are operating normally. We are monitoring the situation and working closely with industry and other government agencies to assess the situation,” the central bank said in a statement to CNBC.
RNC attendees look for a way out of Milwaukee
Reporting from Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport
Hello from the Milwaukee Airport, which is a mix of politicians, red hats and police officers.
Some officers from North Carolina seem to have been here for a while — one of them is sleeping on the floor. One of the airlines just announced that it is bringing out a snack cart.
It’s crowded but quiet here, and the general vibe I would say is pretty tired — I would imagine most of these people were up past midnight watching former President Donald Trump’s speech. Most of the seats at the gates are occupied (as is a lot of the floor) with weary travelers.
FlightAware, which tracks airline operations, said this morning that 40 flights had been canceled, with another 65 delayed.
FedEx experiencing ‘substantial disruptions’
FedEx says it has experienced “substantial disruptions” throughout its networks due to the global IT outage .
The company said contingency plans have been activated to mitigate impact, but delays are possible for packages that have a delivery commitment of today.
FedEx advised customers to check its service alerts page for updates and to track shipments on its website, fedex.com.
Biden has been briefed on the CrowdStrike outage
A White House official said President Joe Biden has been briefed on the outage and his team is in touch with CrowdStrike and impacted entities. His team is engaged across the interagency to get sector by sector updates throughout the day, and is standing by to provide assistance, the official said.
The president was also briefed on the drone attack overnight in Tel Aviv.
Hospitals across the U.S. are canceling operations
Hospitals and medical centers across the United States are turning patients away in the the wake of the global IT problems today.
The Harris Health Quentin Mease Health Center in Houston said it was canceling all elective procedures and outpatient care, while Mass General Brigham in Boston canceled “all previously scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and medical visits are cancelled today.”
The Boston hospital said in a statement: “A major worldwide software outage has affected many of our systems at Mass General Brigham, as well as many major businesses across the country.”
Mass General assured the public that “we continue to care for all patients currently receiving care in our hospitals.”
The University of Miami Health System said its facilities were open but warned that there would be delays due to computers records being unavailable.
Read More
