Screens show a blue error message at a departure floor of LaGuardia Airport in New York on Friday, July 19, 2024, after a faulty CrowdStrike update caused a major internet outage worldwide for computers running Microsoft Windows.
Yuki Iwamura / AP
A massive technology outage Friday morning affected industries worldwide, including airlines, banks, hospitals and other emergency services. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the problem was related to a faulty update it pushed through for some Microsoft systems.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler issued an emergency declaration at about 3 a.m. Friday in response to the outage. The declaration allowed staff to immediately respond and work to get city systems fully operational again.
“I am continuing to receive regular updates and we are closely monitoring the situation,” Wheeler said.
Overnight, some of the city’s computers and servers were affected, including the Bureau of Emergency Communications computer-aided dispatch 911 system. Wheeler said after operators briefly switched to manual call-taking, the system was back up and running again by 6 a.m.
“I want to be crystal clear,” Wheeler said at a press conference Friday morning, “life-saving services of police and fire were interrupted. No 911 calls were interrupted.”
The city said that at no time was the community’s ability to make 911 calls impacted.
Other life-saving public services also continued running.
“The city’s contingency plans for technology outages prepared us for this ongoing situation,” interim City Administrator Michael Jordan said in a written statement. “We continue to work under a State of Emergency as we resolve this issue.”
It was not just the city of Portland affected by the outage.
Portland International Airport reported by Friday afternoon that 51 flights had been delayed and 21 flights had been canceled. It said the outage was affecting select airlines and recommended travelers check their flights before setting off.
The Providence Health System in Portland issued a statement saying some clinical applications were impacted, and that their information technology team was working to restore them. Other problems with the electronic health record system had already been solved.
PeaceHealth and Legacy health systems were also affected but said they were able to maintain critical patient care and access. In a statement, PeaceHealth said it was assessing the impact on its hospitals, clinics and facilities, and continuing to make progress Friday.
The Portland-area transit system TriMet said some customer information systems, like real-time arrival information and service alerts, were affected. But the agency said the system was fully operational again by mid-morning Friday and transit service had not been disrupted.
CrowdStrike said the outage was not a cyberattack or security breach. But affected organizations have been warned that criminals may try to represent themselves as CrowdStrike staff to secure sensitive information.