A global technology outage had grounded flights, disrupted hospitals and backed up border crossings in Canada on Friday, as reported issues persisted hours after the issues with Microsoft services were said to be getting fixed. Passengers are seen at Pearson International Airport, in Toronto, Saturday, June 29, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarovâ€
TORONTO – A global technology outage grounded flights, disrupted hospitals and backed up border crossings in Canada on Friday, as issues persisted hours after problems with Microsoft services were said to be getting fixed.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows ““ and that the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue affected Microsoft 365 apps and services, and escalating disruptions continued after the technology company said it was gradually fixing the problem.
Brent Arnold, a Toronto-based cybersecurity and technology lawyer, called it a software update gone wrong.
“This may be, I think, the biggest scale one that we’ve seen,” said Arnold, a partner at law firm Gowling WLG.
Toronto Pearson International Airport and Montréal”“Trudeau International Airport both said the outage could lead to flight delays and cancellations.
Porter Airlines said it was cancelling its flights until 12 p.m. ET due to the outage.
Andrew Breeding, who was scheduled to fly Porter home to Los Angeles on Friday after a business trip to Toronto, said his flight out of the city’s Billy Bishop Airport had been rescheduled for later in the day.
“I’m just trying to be understanding,” he said.
Meanwhile, Air Canada said there was no major impact to its operations. WestJet said there was no direct effects on its operations.
University Health Network, one of Canada’s largest hospital networks, said some of its systems had been affected by the 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 government of Newfoundland and Labrador advised “users of its digital platforms” of possible service disruptions. The province’s health authority, NL Health Services, said its IT services had also been affected, including the main information system used to manage patient care and finance information.
Banks in Canada were “reviewing the situation based on updates from their technology partners,” a spokeswoman for the Canadian Bankers Association said.
“Any current impacts on banking services would be temporary,” Maggie Cheung said in a statement.
Some companies are reporting their operations are unaffected by the tech outage.
Rogers Communications Inc. said there have been no effects on its phone and internet networks, nor the media outlets it owns.
Microsoft 365 posted on social media platform X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”
In a statement on its website, CrowdStrike said it was “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”
“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” the statement read.
Arnold, the Toronto cybersecurity lawyer, said the outage was a startling reminder of how dependent companies in Canada and around the world have become on just a handful of operating systems.
“We have also become more vulnerable because of that concentration in just a few companies and a few pieces of vital technology,” he said.
“I think it’s probably going to be days or weeks before we understand the full impact.”
– with files from the Associated Press.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2024.
