Public service organizations, private businesses and individuals across the country are struggling to return to their normal routines Friday after a major tech outage derailed services around the world.
Airlines like Delta and United, hospitals, banks, 911 call centers, news sites and even the IT team for the Paris Olympics are among the organizations affected by the issue, according to The Washington Post.
The problems stemmed from a disruption to cybersecurity technology from CrowdStrike, a core part of Windows programs, the article said.
By 7 a.m. MDT on Friday, a fix had been deployed and some affected businesses were restarting operations.
“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” said George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, in a post on X. “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”
Here’s a look at some of the services affected by the outage early Friday:
- Travel delays: About 1,390 of the 110,000 flights scheduled around the world on Friday have been canceled and thousands of others have been delayed, according to The Washington Post.
- Emergency services: 911 call centers in a variety of states were affected by the outage. For example, 911 services were malfunctioning in New Hampshire overnight, per CNN.
- Shipping industry: Shipping systems — think ports and train stations — in Poland, Italy and other countries were delayed due to outages with the computers that typically manage the flow of traffic, CNN reported.
- Hospitals: Some health systems in the U.S. have chosen to delay non-urgent procedures originally schedule for Friday due to their inability to access their computer systems.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg addressed the tech outage on X, urging Americans to familiarize themselves with their rights when flights are canceled or delayed.
“Many flights are impacted as systems recover — passengers should check with their airline for updates and visit our website for more on passenger protections,” he said.