CrowdStrike - Big Tech Problem Hits Many Places: Planes, Businesses, and Border Stops Affected

A big tech problem caused by a bad software update stopped flights, shut down news websites, and messed up hospitals, small shops, and government offices on Friday. This shows how fragile our digital world is, relying on just a few big companies.

The main cause of this huge problem is CrowdStrike, a computer security company that gives software to thousands of businesses worldwide.

CREDIT: AP 

The UK's National Health Service reports that a worldwide internet problem is causing issues at most doctor offices across England.

NHS England said in a statement that the problem is affecting the system used for appointments and patient records across the public health service. The government-funded NHS treats most people in the UK.

The NHS said the issue is impacting most family doctor practices, but is not affecting the 999 number used to call ambulances in emergencies.

CrowdStrike boss George Kurtz said on social media that the company was working to fix problems for Windows users of its tools caused by a recent update.

CrowdStrike is working hard to help customers affected by a mistake in one update for Windows computers. Mac and Linux computers are fine. This isn't a security problem or a cyber attack. We found the problem, isolated it, and fixed it. We tell customers to check our support website for the latest news and we'll keep giving full updates on our website. We also suggest companies make sure they're talking to real CrowdStrike people through official ways. Our team is fully focused on keeping CrowdStrike customers safe and their systems working.

Some Olympic teams are arriving late because of the problem, and uniforms and ID cards are also late, said the people organizing the Paris Olympics.

It hasn't affected tickets or the torch relay. "Our teams are working hard to keep everything running as well as possible," they said.

A computer safety expert said when the internet doesn't work, it can really hurt people because hospitals and other important services can't work right.

"People will die because of this. It's going to happen,'' said James Bore, who runs a computer safety company called Bores.

"So many things depend on this. We have emergency services. Some people will die who wouldn't have otherwise. We're not talking about millions, but it will hurt people. And there are really serious results. That's without talking about money, which is less important. This is going to cause harm."

At Hong Kong's airport, hundreds of people were lining up to manual check-in at the counters of cheap airline HK Express. The airline said its booking system wasn't working because of Microsoft's problem.

Timmy Lo, a 29-year-old hospital worker, said he and his girlfriend had been waiting in line for more than two hours to check in for their flight. The delay meant they would only get to their hotel in Tokyo very late at night when there aren't many trains or buses running.

"I'm very tired because I have to stand in line all the time, and we don't know when we can check in," he said.

Flights at Germany's Berlin Airport were delayed on Friday morning. A big problem with some Microsoft technology caused chaos all over the world.

Bangkok's two airports are facing problems with their automated border control system due to technical disruptions, says Kerati Kijmanawat, head of Thailand's airport authorities.

Several airlines at six big Thai airports are also having trouble with ground operations, he added. He advised travelers to arrive at the airports at least 4 hours before their departure time.

Airports in Singapore and Malaysia are having similar problems, with long lines and worried passengers who might miss their flights because of the long check-in process.

Singapore Post also reported technical disruptions with its services, as did Malaysia's train company KTM.

The London Stock Exchange says it's having problems because of the big tech issue that's causing trouble around the world.

The LSE says its news service wasn't working Friday morning but trading was fine.

“We are currently experiencing a third party technical issue which is impacting some of our services,” a London Stock Exchange Group spokesperson said in a statement.

The exchange says it's trying to fix the problem as fast as it can.

Nasdaq said Friday: “Our European markets and U.S. pre-market are operating normally. We expect our U.S. markets to open normally.”

Germany: Eurowings had to cancel flights German domestic flights and to and from the UK on Friday. The budget airline, which is part of Lufthansa, said check-in and boarding processes was hard because of computer problems or computer disruption. They told people traveling inside Germany to buy a train ticket and ask for their money back.

South Korea: Some low-cost airlines had problems, making people wait longer to get on planes at Incheon airport, the country's biggest. Jeju Air Co. said it was having trouble with tickets and other things on its website. Air Premia Inc. said key services on its website, such as ticket bookings, cancellations and online check-ins, were not working. The website of Eastar Jet Co. wasn’t accessible as of early Friday evening.

U.S.: United Airlines said the problem was affecting its computer systems and warned customers that flights might be delayed. The airline said some flights are resuming and it's making it easier for people to change their travel plans on its website.

In South Africa, at least two big banks said they had trouble. Customers couldn't pay with their bank cards at stores and gas stations or use ATMs.

Both banks said they fixed the problems after a few hours.

Airlink, an airline in southern Africa, also said that its IT network and telephone lines were down because of the big problem (global network outage), but flights were okay

On Friday, more than 300 flights were late and over 100 were cancelled at New York's three big airports — JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty in New Jersey, according to airline tracker Flight Aware.

The city's transportation group said trains and buses were okay but told people not to go to the airport unless they knew their flight status is confirmed.

James Bore, a computer expert, said on Friday that the global technology outage or the big tech problem "will take some time to fix." Flights, banks, news outlets, and companies around the world are still having trouble.

Officials in some U.S. states, like Alaska, Virginia and Iowa, warned that 911 wasn't working right in their areas.

Alaska State Troopers said many 911 and other emergency call centers across the state weren't working right. They shared other numbers to call for areas where 911 wasn't working.

In Virginia, the City of Fairfax Police Department said on social media that its phone systems, including 911, were having problems. They shared a non-emergency number for people to call. They said 911 could still be used, but calls wouldn't go straight to the people who answer emergency calls.

CrowdStrike, the computer safety company causing the big problem, was started in 2012 by George Kurtz, Dmitri Alerovitch and Gregg Marston. They say they have the best cloud-based safety technology.

Kurtz, the boss, said on their website, "Our team of smart people are the rebels who think the current way of doing safety is broken and want to fix it."

CrowdStrike started selling shares on the stock market five years ago. Last month, they said their money from sales went up 33% from the last three months. They made $42.8 million in profit, up from $491,000 in the first three months of this year.

The company has a partnership with Amazon Web Services and its Falcon for Defender is designed to supplement Microsoft Defender to prevent attacks.

The company said Friday's big problems happened when they deployed a faulty update to computers using Microsoft Windows. They said it was not a security incident or cyberattack, and they were working on fixing it.

Janice Bruce from St. Joseph, Missouri, was one of many people waiting for flights at Kansas City International Airport. Bruce was going on a church trip to Mexico with her Baptist church friends, but their flight to Houston was late.

The group hoped their next flight would be late too. They spent time getting food and coffee, talking and sleeping.

"No point getting mad. It's not something we can control," she said.

In Canada, the tech outage or the computer problem stopped some planes from flying, caused problems at hospitals, and made long lines at border crossings on Friday.

Porter Airlines said it won't fly any planes until 12 p.m. ET because of the problem. Air Canada, the biggest airline in Canada, said it's not having any big problems.

University Health Network, one of Canada's biggest hospital groups, said some of its systems weren't working right and some patients might have to wait longer.

Windsor Police said there were long waits at both the Canada-United States border crossings at the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel.

At Narita Airport near Tokyo, people flying with Jetstar Japan were in long lines at the check-in desk. The staff had to do everything by hand because the computer system wasn't working.

Jetstar Japan said it had to cancel 28 flights, most of them domestic. This was because of a software problem that stalled the airline’s boarding procedures at airports all over the country, including Narita.

The airline apologized for the inconveniences and that it was trying hard to fix the system as fast as it could.

Microsoft spokesperson Frank X. Shaw has confirmed that "a CrowdStrike update was responsible for shutting down a number of Windows systems around the world."

“We are actively supporting customers to assist in their recovery,” he said in an emailed statement Friday.

Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, western Japan, has said that the global system outage or the world system problem will keep affecting ticket sales at the attraction over the weekend.

The park said its ticket booth sales will not be available Saturday and Sunday, and asked visitors to buy their tickets on its official website or via a special ticket sales site.

Park rides are not affected.

The world problem has stopped several TV stations in the U.S. from showing local news early Friday.

KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Missouri, showed national news network Scripps News instead of local news until about 5:35 a.m., the stations said on its website. IT teams and engineers worked through the night to fix the problem, the station said.

Other local stations owned by Scripps and other companies reported similar problems.

Scripps spokesman Michael Perry said in an email that as of 8 a.m. EDT, 90% of stations were able to show local news.

The company that runs South Africa's airports, which include some of the busiest in Africa, says they have not been affected by the world computer network problem.

Airports Company South Africa says it doesn't use CrowdStrike services and things are running as normal.

In Panama, Copa Airlines was recommending that travelers arrive to the capital’s Tocumen International Airport at least three hours before their scheduled flights because some procedures were being carried out manually, delaying check-in.

The airline, however, said that it didn’t expect cancellations.

In Michigan, Genesee County, which includes Flint, closed non-important county government work for the day.

Richard Stiennon, a cybersecurity industry analyst, said that this was a very big mistake by CrowdStrike.

"This is easily the worst mess-up, technical mess-up or problem of any safety software company ever," said Stiennon, who has watched the computer safety industry for 24 years.

He said while the problem is easy to fix, its effects could last a long time.

“It’s really, really difficult to touch millions of machines. And people are on vacation right now, so, you know, the CEO will be coming back from his trip to the Bahamas in a couple of weeks and he won’t be able to use his computers.”

The global computer problem likely won't have much impact on the world economy, according to forecasting firm Capital Economics, especially because it hasn't disrupted financial markets.

"While things are still very uncertain, we don't expect a major economic or financial market impact at this stage," Jennifer McKeown, chief global economist at Capital Economics, said in a written comment. "It's encouraging from an economic standpoint that there has been little financial disturbance so far."

"We're very sorry for the problems we've caused for customers, travelers, and anyone affected by this, including our companies," CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on NBC's "Today Show" Friday. "We know what the issue is" and are working to fix it.

He said the system was sent an update and the update had a bug in it causing a problem to Microsoft's Windows operating system.

"It was only the Microsoft operating system" that was affected, though it didn't happen on every Microsoft Windows system, he said.

A spokesperson for health care company CVS Health Corp. said Friday morning that its drugstores and pharmacies were working normally.

By late morning on the East Coast, about 1,500 US flights had been canceled and nearly 4,000 delayed — numbers that were sure to grow throughout the day — according to FlightAware.

Delta canceled nearly 500 flights, American canceled 300 and United more than 200, and these numbers don't include flights on their regional partners.

The Boston-based health system Mass General Brigham said on its website that it was canceling all non-urgent care visits due to the outage, but its emergency rooms are still open.

The company said on its website that it can't access its clinical systems, including patient health records and scheduling.

It asked patients not to call to reschedule and said a care team member would contact them instead.

Bradesco, a big bank in Brazil, told its users through its app that online services were unstable due to a global cyber outage or global tech problem, but its ATMs were working fine. Bradesco has over 100 million customers.

Azul Airlines, a low-cost airline in Brazil, said its check-in systems were affected, causing some flight delays. The company suggested customers get to the airport earlier.

Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency said it's watching the impacts on airports, but so far there haven't been major delays.

Maryland's courts, offices and buildings will be shut to the public on Friday due to the Microsoft outage. However, they'll stay open for urgent matters.

“Due to the worldwide Microsoft outage, all Maryland courts, offices, and facilities will be closed to the public today but will remain open for emergency matters,” the courts said in a statement. "All clerks' offices are closed."

Maryland's Emergency Management Department said Friday it was raising the state alert level from "normal" to "partial," meaning an event needs a lot of watching or resources. The agency is also activating its emergency operations center.

In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams stressed there was no impact to critical infrastructure or emergency operations in the biggest city in the United States, including the 911 system. "There are no calls being held or missed. There is no backlog," Adams said. Transit officials also said train and bus service was not affected, even as travel problems got worse at the city's busy airports.

In Georgia, the Department of Driver Services said its computer systems were down at more than 60 offices across the state. The department was still giving road tests, but wasn't giving licenses to people who passed.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Regional Transit Authority said problems had caused less service on its train system earlier in the morning, but that full train service was back. However, the system's website, service information systems and online ticket sales were still not working.

In Texas, Harris Health System, which runs public hospitals and clinics in the Houston area, said it had to stop hospital visits "until further notice" on Friday because of the outage. They cancelled and rescheduled planned hospital procedures for Friday. Clinic appointments were affected at first, but they went back to normal later Friday.

"Some services might not be available because of the current CrowdStrike problem. We thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this disruption," the health system said.

Alison Baulos, the executive director of the Center for the Economics of Human Development at the University of Chicago, said her 73-year-old father’s emergency open heart surgery was cancelled Friday morning due to the global tech outage, leaving her family scared and worried.

“It’s an emergency surgery so if anything happens, it would be as a result of not having the surgery this morning,” Baulos told The Associated Press.

Her father was waiting at Baptist Hospital in Paducah, Kentucky to find out what will happen next, she said.

Her father was expecting surgery after he received a call from his doctor on Wednesday saying he had eight blockages and an aneurysm. But the family was told the operation had to be postponed due to the outage.

“It does really make you just realize how much we rely on technology and how scary it is,” she said.

A phone message left with the spokesperson at Baptist Hospital seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Some big screens in New York City's famous Times Square turned off during the big tech problem. Local news and people on social media shared pictures of the huge electronic screens completely off and black early Friday morning.

Tom Harris, who leads the Times Square Alliance, said a "few" of the more than 100 billboards in the square were still offline around noon Friday. "We're almost back to normal," he said. He added that it's not clear if all the blackouts were because of the big tech problem or just regular upkeep or other issues since different companies own and run the billboards.

In Los Angeles, the Cedars-Sinai Health System stayed open and kept giving care. Spokesperson Christina Elston said the system had problems but they were working to fix them and limit how much they affected things.

Harris Health System, which runs public hospitals and clinics near Houston, said it had to stop hospital visits "until further notice" because of the problem. They canceled and rescheduled planned hospital procedures. Clinic appointments were affected at first, but later the health system said on X that its health centers were now open for such appointments.

A person speaking for the Cleveland Clinic said patient care hasn't been affected by the problem, but it was affecting some technology the clinic uses. She said the health system is giving care at all locations.

The Federal Aviation Administration let Delta and United airlines start flying again just before noon.

JetBlue said its flights are normal, and it's not having any big delays or cancellations.

United Airlines said earlier that the problem was affecting its computer systems and warned customers about possible flight delays. The airline said some flights are starting again and it's making it easier for people to change their travel plans on its website.

"The important part is how we learn from them and how we make our systems stronger, so that similar problems don't happen again."

Andrew Sullivan, CEO of the nonprofit Internet Society 

The problems messed up flights, banks, news outlets, and companies around the world, but Sullivan said there was no loss of connectivity and data continued to flow.

“This was a failure of some systems using a specific operating system and a specific vendor’s management tools,” he said. “Unfortunately, those systems were used widely and for many functions critical to people’s daily lives.”

AUSTIN, Texas — The internet problems made Texas close all its driver's license offices in the state, and New York's DMV couldn't do work online or in its offices Friday morning.

Texas has driver's license offices in most of its 254 counties. They give out, renew, and update driver licenses or state ID cards and offer driver education classes.

The department said in a statement that “there is no current estimate” on when the offices will reopen.

In New York, the DMV said that by Friday afternoon, some systems had been restored and that it could begin performing online transactions. However, some in-person services were still offline.
At least three of its DMV offices closed for the day because of the outage, according to the agency’s website.

TUSTIN, Calif. — Ports in Southern California and the John Wayne Airport had some tech issues but kept working.

At John Wayne Airport in Orange County, about 12 flights were cancelled and at least 40 were late. But planes were still taking off Friday morning, said AnnaSophia Servin from the airport. The airport usually has about 260 planes arrive and leave each day.

"We're still helping passengers, but airlines are dealing with flight changes," Servin said.

At the big ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, some parts had problems but it didn't cause big issues.

Mario Cordero, the boss of the Port of Long Beach, said four areas had computer problems but fixed them quickly. One of the seven areas at the Port of Los Angeles had limited work overnight, said Phillip Sanfield, who speaks for the port.

BOSTON — Courts in Massachusetts and New York had trouble working on Friday because of the big internet problem.

In Massachusetts, about half of the court computers were down. Also, systems for recording what people say in court weren't working in many courthouses. This made some court sessions start late.

Some court meetings in New York were also delayed because of computer issues.

In Manhattan, a court meeting for Harvey Weinstein, who is charged with rape, started 90 minutes late. This was because of problems with court and jail computers.

In Southern California, the Orange County court also had tech issues.

CrowdStrike is a US company that makes security software for businesses around the world. They say they're the best at cloud-based security tech.

CrowdStrike started in 2011 and launched in early 2012. They went public on the stock market five years ago. Last month, the Austin, Texas company said its money from sales went up 33% compared to last year. They made $42.8 million in profit, up from just $491,000 in the same time last year.

SANTA ANA, Calif. — People trying to enter the US from Canada and Mexico had to wait longer because of internet problems.

At the San Ysidro border crossing, people on foot waited three hours to cross on Friday morning, the San Diego Union-Tribune said.

Even people approved for faster crossing had to wait up to 90 minutes in their cars. This program, called SENTRI, lets low-risk travelers cross faster if they get checked first.

The San Diego bus system said on X that some workers who live in Mexico couldn't get to work. This might affect bus service, so riders should check for delays.

At the US-Canada border, police in Windsor reported long waits at the bridge and tunnel crossings to Detroit.

MINNEAPOLIS — Many people had a really bad day at some US airports on Friday.

The FAA said that United, American, Delta, and Allegiant airlines all had to stop their flights.

At the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport, Sarah Schafer was trying to go to Florida for her cousin's 50th birthday party. She had been waiting for almost three hours with no idea when she might get a new flight. The lines were very long, and she had to use a cane because of a hurt ankle.

"I look calm," Schafer said. "But I might get angry soon."

By 7 a.m. at Los Angeles airport, more than 70 flights were cancelled. People had to wait for hours to get through security or try to book new flights.

At Chicago's O'Hare Airport, many screens, even at the gates, were still showing the blue Windows "recovery" screen on Friday afternoon.

Air travelers were hit hard by the big tech problem on Friday. Many people posted pictures on social media of crowds stuck at airports in Europe and the United States.

In the US, many big airlines like American, Delta, United, Spirit, and Allegiant had to stop all their flights for a while on Friday morning. The airlines said the problem affected many systems, including those used to check in passengers and figure out how much planes weigh - which is important for planes to take off safely.

United and some other airlines said people could change their travel plans without extra fees. The problem happened overnight because of a software update from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm. This update went to Microsoft computers used by many airlines.

The big tech problem affected hospitals and doctors in many countries. Some places had big issues, while others were okay.

In Houston, Texas, the public hospitals had to stop visits "until further notice". They also had to cancel and reschedule planned hospital procedures.

Providence, which runs 51 hospitals in five US states, had problems with their patient records systems.

A big cancer center in New York had to pause any procedures needing sleep medicine.

In New England, some hospitals had to cancel appointments.

The biggest health care system in Massachusetts had to cancel all non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and doctor visits for Friday. But emergency rooms stayed open.

Some big hospital systems, like HCA Healthcare with 188 hospitals, said they could still take care of patients. In Los Angeles, Cedars-Sinai Health System was open and giving care. The Cleveland Clinic also said patient care was not affected.

In Canada, a big hospital network said they were still seeing patients as planned, but some might have to wait longer.

In England, most doctor's offices had problems because the system they use for appointments and patient records wasn't working. This affected the National Health Service, which takes care of most people in the UK.

The emergency number for ambulances in the UK was still working.

People wanting a big caramel coffee or a cold fruit drink found they couldn't order ahead from Starbucks online or with their phones on Friday.

Starbucks said sorry for the problem. They said most of their stores and drive-thrus were still serving customers.