Crowdstrike-Windows outage: Telecom, airline, hospital systems among those affected across the world

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4 p.m.

Global tech outage eases after widespread disruption, new focus seen on risks

Services from airlines to healthcare, shipping and finance have begun coming back online after the global digital outage that disrupted computer systems for hours, another incident that shows the vulnerability of the world’s interconnected technologies.

After the outage was resolved, companies were dealing with backlogs of delayed and canceled flights and medical appointments, missed orders and other issues that could take days to resolve. Businesses also face questions about how to avoid future blackouts triggered by technology meant to safeguard their systems.

An earlier software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, one of the largest operators in the industry, triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking.

– Reuters

2 p.m.

Frustrations growing among passengers at Billy Bishop airport as outage pushes flight cancellations

Frustrated travellers gathered outside Billy Bishop Airport in downtown Toronto as announcements about flight cancellations broadcast over the intercom.

Jennifer McHenry was supposed to be headed to New York with her fiancée to see a Luke Combs concert this weekend. Instead, an hour-long plane ride was turning into a possible day-long journey as she searched for train or bus tickets to get out of the city. “It’s a once-in-15-years kind of thing, but what can you do,” she said.

Lynn Van Gastel, who was headed to Toulouse, France, for a long-awaited vacation with a connecting Porter flight to Montreal, did not have any viable alternatives.

“I found another flight to get Montreal but they said they won’t honour my Air Transat flight to Toulouse then,” she said. “They won’t let me go – it’s so frustrating.”

A late-morning announcement over the intercom that flight cancellations would continue until 3 p.m. prompted many travellers to leave.

– Mariya Postelnyak

1:30 p.m.

CBSA says its partial systems outage has now been resolved

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said that it had experienced a partial systems outage of its telephone reporting system Friday morning, which is primarily used by small aircraft passengers and boaters, but that the issue has been resolved.

Despite reports of lengthy delays at the Ambassador bridge between Windsor and Detroit, CBSA spokesperson Jacqueline Roby said that wait times were normal as of late morning.

– Irene Galea

12:50 p.m.

Starbucks suffers temporary outage of mobile order and pay features

Starbucks said on Friday its mobile order ahead and pay features were temporarily out of order due to a worldwide tech outage on Friday.

“Starbucks is among those companies experiencing impacts due to a widespread third-party systems outage, resulting in a temporary outage of our mobile order ahead and pay features,” the company told Reuters on mail.

– Reuters

12:35 p.m.

Mirvish ticketing down as outage continues

Theatre operator Mirvish Productions has lost the ability to sell any tickets online, by telephone and even in person as a result of the outage. The company uses a ticketing system run by New York-based Tessitura Network Inc., which caters specifically to performing arts organizations.

“Unfortunately they were affected by the Crowdstrike outage today around 1:40 a.m. ET,” Mirvish spokesperson John Karastamatis said via email. “The company is working to restore service and hopes to have everything up and running soon. They have not been able to confirm a time when this will happen.”

Mirvish ticket sales remained unavailable as of noon eastern time on Friday.

The outage comes at a particularly challenging time for the live theatre producer. Mirvish had just one day earlier unveiled the cast for its upcoming production of The Lion King.

– Jameson Berkow

12:20 p.m.

Several CBC programs unable to air due to outage

In an email, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation spokesperson Leon Mar said the broadcaster had been affected by the outage and was working to solve any remaining issues.

“Like many other broadcasters, airlines and companies around the world, CBC/Radio-Canada has been affected by the issue with the most recent version of the CrowdStrike Falcon software. Some radio and television programs did not air as scheduled and were replaced with other programming,” said Mr. Mar, director of media relations.

– Irene Galea

12:10 p.m.

Several employees at Telus, Rogers unable to log into devices or access company systems

Canada’s Big Three telecoms said their networks were operating as usual. However, some employees at Telus Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc., including front-line customer service staff, were unable to log in to their devices or access company systems or applications, which impacted operations.”

Some Telus team members are unable to access some of the tools and systems necessary to support our customers. We are working with the utmost urgency to resolve these issues as soon as possible,” Telus spokesperson Jacinthe Beaulieu said in an email.

A few Rogers radio stations were airing reruns, the company said. BCE Inc. said its networks and its TV and radio stations were not impacted.

”The Bell network is not experiencing any issues related to the IT outages reported today. Some of our customers and partners are impacted by the global outage and we are working with them to help recover their services,” spokesperson Ellen Murphy said in a statement.

– Alexandra Posadski

11:55 a.m.

Health minister says Canada is working to support health infrastructure during outage

A global tech outage is creating challenges for doctors and hospitals in Canada and the government is working to support health infrastructure, Health Minister Mark Holland said on Friday.

“We are aware of the IT outage and the challenges it is creating for health care professionals and hospitals. We are actively monitoring the situation and working with partners across Canada to support our health infrastructure,” Holland said in a statement.

– The Canadian Press

11:35 a.m.

Markets slump, CrowdStrike stock drops amid IT outage

Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Friday, deepening a sell-off driven by tech stocks and mixed earnings, while investors assessed the impact of a global cyber outage that knocked down CrowdStrike’s shares to an over two-month low.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike slumped 11.2 per cent after an update to one of its products appeared to trigger an outage that affected customers using Microsoft’s Windows Operating System, disrupting businesses across sectors.

Major U.S. airlines ordered ground stops citing communication issues, with the Euronext exchange and London Stock Exchange Group’s Workspace news and data platform also facing issues. LSEG later said its data and services were back online.

Microsoft slipped 0.7 per cent to an over one-month low, on track for a four-day decline, driven by a rout in tech stocks.

– Reuters

11:25 a.m.

Big banks impacted by outage

Toronto-Dominion Bank has been experiencing service interruptions to its WebBroker online trading platform “due to global system issues.” Users were temporarily unable to get market and research data or individual stock quotes. Some direct investing services were also unavailable, and a message to users said “service will be restored soon, so please try again later.”

At Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a notice to users of its Investor’s Edge online trading platform said quotes and research are temporarily unavailable because of “global technical issues.”

The website for RBC Direct Investing said clients could have difficulties placing trades or viewing quotes and watchlists, “due to temporary problems.” Processing of some foreign exchange transactions was also delayed. “Work is under way to resolve the problem as quickly as possible,” the notice said.

Similarly, BMO’s InvestorLine self-directed trading site said it was having difficulties with symbol search and market research that could impact trading, “due to the ongoing global IT outage.”

Spokespeople for the banks were not immediately available to comment.

– James Bradshaw

10:51 a.m.

Intact Financial experiences service delays amid outage

Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer, Intact Financial Corp.– which oversees subsidiaries Belairdirect and Johnson Insurance – has been affected by the technology outage this morning.

Intact Financial spokesperson David Barrett told The Globe in an e-mail that as a result of the global IT outage, the company is currently experiencing delays in its ability to serve customers.

“Services are being gradually restored and we expect to be fully operational in the next few hours. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” Mr. Barrett said.

– Clare O’Hara

10:46 a.m.

Canadian Pacific Kansas City affected by outage, but freight trains still running

Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway said it was affected by the outage but its freight trains are running. “We did have an impact to our systems but we’re operational,” said CPKC spokesman Patrick Waldron, declining to elaborate.

Canadian National Railway spokesman Jonathan Abecassis said the railway’s operations are not affected and the company experienced “minimal impacts” because it does not use the affected software.

– Eric Atkins

10:38 a.m.

Global tech outage reaches Atlantic Canada, affects Newfoundland health-care services

The tech outage spread to parts of Atlantic Canada, affecting the government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s online services and health-care information systems.

The province said residents attempting to use its online platforms may hit a snag, while the province’s health authority said the outage is expected to impact the availability of some health-care services.

Airports in major Atlantic Canadian cities urged passengers to check with their airlines for up-to-date flight information as several carriers were affected.

In Halifax, the Stanfield International Airport said Friday morning its online flight information board was having problems, but the issue was resolved as of about 10 a.m.

The airports in Charlottetown and St. John’s advised that their flight board may not be up to date and asked passengers to get information directly from their airlines instead.

Halifax Transit reported technical issues with its HXGO app but said passengers could still use unsaved debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

– The Canadian Press

10:34 a.m.

Canadian hospitals, border disrupted during global tech outage

University Health Network, one of Canada’s largest hospital networks, said some of its systems had been affected by the global tech outage. In a post to social media, it said clinical activity was continuing as scheduled, but some patients may experience delays.

St. Joseph’s Healthcare said its Hamilton hospital remained open as it worked on a fix to the issues it was experiencing with its IT systems.

The Canada Border Services Agency said it had experienced a partial systems outage of its telephone reporting system, primarily used by small aircraft passengers and boaters, that had since been resolved.

“The CBSA worked urgently with its partners and service providers to mitigate any disruptions and restore full service as quickly as possible,” spokeswoman Jacqueline Roby said in a statement.

“We are continuing to monitor further potential impacts. No CBSA systems are affected at this time.”

Earlier on Friday, Windsor police reported long delays at both the Canada-United States border crossings at the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel.

– The Canadian Press

10:30 a.m.

Telus experiences issues at call centres; Bell, Rogers say networks not impacted

Telus Corp. was experiencing issues at its call centres on Friday morning.

“As a result of a global software update outage from a third party, some Telus team members are unable to access the tools and systems necessary to support our customers,” Telus spokesperson Jacinthe Beaulieu said in an email. “We are working with the utmost urgency to bring our systems to full functionality as soon as possible. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.”

Ms. Beaulieu added that Telus customers could check the company’s website and social media channels for updates.

Representatives of Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. said that their networks and media operations were not impacted.

“The Bell network is not experiencing any issues related to the IT outages reported today. Some of our customers and partners are impacted by the global outage and we are working with them to help recover their services,” spokesperson Ellen Murphy said in a statement.

– Alexandra Posadski

9:52 a.m.

Canada banks assessing impact of IT outage

Canada’s largest banks have not provided details about any significant impact to their operations, though some emphasized that they are still assessing the situation.

“Like many other companies, banks in Canada are reviewing the situation based on live updates from their technology partners,” said Maggie Cheung, a spokesperson for the Canadian Bankers Association.

“Canadians can be reassured that our country has a well-protected banking system. Any current impact on access to banking services would be temporary,” she said.

National Bank of Canada spokesperson Alexandre Guay said the bank is “aware of the incident and our teams are monitoring the situation,” in an e-mail. “Please note that our online and mobile services, debit and credit cards and ATMs are fully functional.”

– James Bradshaw

9:52 a.m.

Porter Airlines grounds fleet amid global IT outage

Toronto-based Porter Airlines has grounded its fleet and cancelled all flights on Friday morning until noon ET amid a global software outage.

Porter cancelled 25 flights as of 8:45 a.m. ET, according to aviation data company Cirium, as an IT outage affected banks, healthcare providers and other companies around the world.

Porter said in a statement on its website customers are unable to access its reservations, flight changes and inquiry systems. “Passengers cannot be rebooked while systems are offline,” the airline said.

Canada’s other airlines are apparently not affected by the computer problems, but domestic airports are posting several delayed flights.

At Toronto Pearson and Montreal-Trudeau airports, several morning flights are delayed by up to three hours, including routes flown by Air Canada and Delta Air Lines. Pearson spokeswoman Stephanie Smyth cited the IT outage for the delays, and referred questions to airlines.

Read more about the flight disruptions.

– Eric Atkins

9:24 a.m.

CrowdStrike deploys fix for issue causing global tech outage

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has deployed a fix for an issue that triggered a major tech outage that affected industries ranging from airlines to banking to healthcare worldwide, the company’s CEO said on Friday.

Microsoft said separately it had fixed the underlying cause for the outage of its 365 apps and services including Teams and OneDrive, but residual impact was affecting some services.

“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a post on social media platform X.

The issue stemmed from a defect found in a single content update for Microsoft Windows hosts, Kurtz said, adding Mac and Linux hosts were not impacted by the issue.

– Reuters

8:14 a.m.

What caused the global cyber outage?

A global tech failure disrupted operations across multiple industries on Friday, halting flights and upending airlines, banks and businesses worldwide.

What is CrowdStrike?

CrowdStrike, a U.S. cybersecurity company with a market value of about $83 billion, is among the most popular in the world, counting more than 20,000 subscribers around the world, the company’s website shows.

According to an alert sent by CrowdStrike to its clients at 1:30 a.m. EST (5:30 a.m. GMT) on Friday and reviewed by Reuters, its widely used “Falcon Sensor” software is causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known informally as the “Blue Screen of Death”.

However, it is not clear how easily the affected systems can be fixed remotely, as the “Blue Screen of Death” is causing computers to crash on reboot before they can be updated.

What is affected by the outage?

Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and businesses alike have become increasingly dependent on a handful of interconnected technology companies over the past two decades.

Experts say the cyber outage revealed the risks of an increasingly online world.

To protect their computer networks from being breached by hackers, many businesses use a cybersecurity product known as Endpoint Detection and Response, or EDR, which runs in the background of corporate machines, or “endpoints”.

Firms like CrowdStrike are able to use their EDR products as early warning systems for potential digital attacks, scan for viruses, and prevent hackers from gaining unauthorised access to corporate networks.

But, in this case, something in CrowdStrike’s code is conflicting with something in the code that makes Windows work, and causing those systems to crash, even after rebooting.

– Reuters