OHIO — Friday morning, a widespread Microsoft outage was affecting most of the world, from banks to airlines to media outlets and companies.
Escalating disruptions continued hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.
What You Need To Know
- The website DownDectector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta
- CrowdStrike released a statement that it was actively working with affected companies
- Groundstops for airlines were ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration early Friday morning and passengers are urged to check their flight statuses
- Hospital systems have also been affected with Cincinnati Children's closing itsSchubert Research Clinic until 10 a.m.
The website DownDectector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta.
Microsoft 365posted on Xthat the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion” and that it was “observing a positive trend in service availability.”
CrowdStrike released a statement that it was actively working with affected customers.
"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. This is not a security incident or cyberattack," the company said in a blog post. "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website."
Social Security offices closed Friday because of the outage. Its phone line remains open and people can reach out by calling800-772-1213.
Due to widespread IT outages due to the global Microsoft and CrowdStrike issues, local Social Security offices are closed to the public today. Our phone line remains open and many online services remain unavailable. Thank you for your patience. https://t.co/53jirFQGkg.
— Social Security (@SocialSecurity) July 19, 2024
The city of Akron said some city servers and devices were affected by the outage, but core city services were not disrupted. According to a press release 911 dispatch remains operational and water and wastewater services had no serious disruption.
The city said some services may be slightly delayed this morning including its 311 website access, Utilities Business Office, Income Tax, and city golf courses.
“We appreciate the patience and understanding of our residents as our staff work as quickly as possible to respond to this widespread outage,” said Mayor Malik in a news release. “Our critical and core city functions and services are working as intended and we expect to have all other functionality back up and running very soon. I want to express my sincere appreciation to our IT staff for their diligence which quickly caught these issues last night and their swift work at addressing the problems to provide a fix.”
Other cities are also reporting outages from the outage including Hudson phone lines.
Due to the global internet outage, all City of Hudson phones are down. Administrative offices can be reached via email. 911 lines are working. Utility billing systems are down, so you cannot pay your bills in person or online at this time. We will post updates as we have them. pic.twitter.com/w7a3wb4xgV
— City of Hudson, Ohio - Government (@CityofHudsonOH) July 19, 2024
The Greater Cleveland RTA said real-time bus tracking information and mobile payment via EZ Fare on its app were not available for riders because of the outage. According to its X account, all buses, trains and paratransits are running and scheduled times can be checked here.
Groundstops for airlines were ordered Friday morning by the Federal Aviation Administration and passengers are urged to check their flight statuses before heading to airports.
— CVG Airport (@CVGairport) July 19, 2024We are aware that several carriers have been impacted by global technology issues, prompting ground stops coordinated with the FAA. Some carriers have been able to resolve the technology issues. Others are delaying, pausing or canceling flights.
Passengers are urged to check…
John Glenn International Airport said its systems were also affected.
Some Ohio government systems were also affected including the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.
— OhioJFS (@OhioJFS) July 19, 2024
The Ohio Department of Administrative Services said in a post on X that some of the state's IT services were affected.
"The Crowdstrike software outage is impacting some state of Ohio IT services. DAS is working with state agencies to restore outages. We ask customers to be patient until we can restore all services," the post read. "Aside from this outage, state government continues to serve Ohio’s citizens."
Columbia Gas said it was facing technology issues because of the outage.
"We're experiencing technical issues with our website and mobile app today due to the global technology outage involving Crowdstrike," the company said on X. "If you have an emergency and are unable to report it to our 24/7 emergency line 1-800-344-4077, please call 911 from a safe place."
The Ohio Turnpike said its E-ZPass website was also affected by the global outage.
Hospital systems have also been affected with Cincinnati Children's closing itsSchubert Research Clinic until 10 a.m. Its urgent care and emergency room remain open.
Many of our Microsoft-based computer systems have been affected by the worldwide technology outage. Our teams are working hard to minimize disruption to patient care and system operations, and we are bringing systems back up as quickly as possible. pic.twitter.com/8IZkp2auIB
— Cincinnati Children's (@CincyChildrens) July 19, 2024
The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center said its systems are affected by the outage, but that all its locations remain open.
"We have back up procedures in place and we are currently implementing vendor repairs," Wexner said in a post on X. "Patients with appointments should report as planned unless they are contacted with other instructions. There may be delays due to our backup procedures and we appreciate our patients’ understanding."
Cuyahoga County, in a post on X, said its technology services were also disrupted
"Cuyahoga County is currently experiencing some disruptions in technology services connected to nationwide outages," the county's statement said. "At this time, emergency services including 9-1-1 (Cuyahoga Emergency Communications System) and 216-696-KIDS (Child Abuse Hotline) remain operable."
The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles site was also down Friday morning.
Due to a global network outage impacting servers worldwide, some BMV and Title services may not be available. We are working to restore services as quickly as possible.
— Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (@Ohio_BMV) July 19, 2024
Franklin County Sheriff's Office said some of its operations were also affected.
"The Franklin County Sheriff's Office would like to inform the community that a national widespread IT outage has affected some of our operations. We want to assure the public that our ability to take 911 calls remains fully operational and is not impacted by this outage," the department said in a Facebook post. "Our 911 Communication Center continues to work diligently, as always, to ensure the safety and well-being of our residents."
The University of Dayton's campus services were also affected, according to a banner on its site.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
The Associated Press Contributed to this article.