Local impacts of the Microsoft ‘CrowdStrike’ outage; health care, police

A worldwide outage at Microsoft is impacting millions of people on Friday morning.

The global outage is disrupting flights, banks, media outlets and companies around the world. At the heart of the issue is CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company that claims to be the most advanced cloud-based security technology provider. The company said Friday’s disruptions happened when it ran a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows.

The result: Technology issues for those using or operating Microsoft and CrowdStrike programs across the world.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said the company is working on the problem.

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted,” he said. “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

Impacts of the outage locally

Here in Waterloo Region, Waterloo Regional Police Services (WRPS) confirm the outage is not impacting them.

They confirm to CityNews 570 it is “business as usual.”

Guelph Police also confirming they were not experiencing any issues Friday.

Airports in Waterloo Region

The Region of Waterloo International Airport also not impacted by the outage, primarily impacting fliers with Delta Airlines, Porter Airlines, American Airlines, and United Airlines. There were no delays or cancellations reported at the Breslau airport Friday.

Are hospitals and clinics impacted by the outage?

Healthcare services are seeing some impacts.

A spokesperson for Grand River Hospital and St Mary’s General Hospital confirming to CityNews 570, clinical services, and elective surgeries are affected.

“Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital have been impacted by the CrowdStrike outage.” said Victoria Ott, integrated director of strategic engagements for Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital.

“Our clinical services, that’s our health services are online. If you’re experiencing a medical emergency, please call 911, or proceed to your closest emergency department. Our IT departments are working on ensuring that all the administrative information services come back online as soon as possible. They may experience some delays.

“Please, just bear with us as we work through this with the rest of the world.”

The emergency department is not impacted, so if you do have an emergency, you will be able to go to the Emergency Room at both hospitals.

Cambridge Memorial Hospital confirms their services have not been impacted.

Now if today is your payday, you could be impacted as well, with banks internationally having issues.

Stay with CityNews 570 for the latest updates on this story.