How worldwide cyber outage is affecting us across the CSRA
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Services across the CSRA from air travel to education are being affected by a worldwide cyber outage.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows. The company said a fix was on the way — but hours after the problem was first detected, the disarray escalated.
Tech outage keeps fliers ground in Augusta, around world
One of the most visible effects of tech outage was lines of engers stranded at airports after airlines were shut down for hours.
What is CrowdStrike and how did global cyber outage happen?
A widespread technology outage caused chaos around the world and in the CSRA. What do we know about the company behind this mess.
Global outage impacting your bank access? Here’s what to do
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shared the following steps in the event of problems with your bank during the worldwide technology outage.
A faulty software update causes havoc worldwide
A faulty software update caused technological havoc worldwide on Friday, grounding flights, knocking down some financial companies and news outlets.
Government
The city of Augusta said customer services are fully intact, including police systems. The Augusta 911 center says services are “operational.”
Grovetown said its city systems weren’t affected.
The North Augusta office of the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles said it saw no issues.
The Georgia Department of Driver Services said its services were unavailable. Customers couldn’t look up their license status, access their driving report history, pay fees and more.
The Georgia Department of Revenue said its Georgia Tax Center and DRIVES applications are down. The online DRIVES services address tag renewals, title status changes, vehicle registrations, insurance fines and other issues.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said it was unable to process any licenses, reservations or registrations.
The U.S. Postal Service reported no problems.
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Travel
Flights were halted for hours at Augusta Regional Airport because the outage affected Delta and American Airlines, Augusta’s two commercial carriers.
American and Delta both said they were flying again by afternoon, but they were sure to suffer a domino effect.
That effect continued into Saturday with several cancellations.
Delta issued a travel waiver for all customers who booked flights departing Friday. It allows customers to manage their own travel changes via delta.com and the Fly Delta app.
The fare difference for customers will be waived when rebooked travel occurs on or before July 24, in the same cabin of service as originally booked. If travel is rebooked after July 24, any difference in fare between the original ticket and the new ticket will be collected at the time of booking.”
American Airlines sent out this statement:
“Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
Local fliers should their airline directly for the most up-to-date flight information.
At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, there was a lot of confusion and frustration. As of 3 p.m., 782 flights were delayed and 593 were canceled, with the majority of those being Endeavor Air and Delta Air Lines flights, according to FlightAware.
Education
At Augusta University, some lab machines, which include student labs, podium machines and some within the cyber center have been affected by the outage. There have been no issues with student registration or new students in general.
Students in Aiken County will head back to school on Monday, and the district says it’s running into some istrative issues.
In Edgefield County, Merriwether Middle School Principal Mindy Clark said coming into work was “chaotic.”
“This morning, we came in fully expecting a normal day in a middle school. We were trying to get schedules printed and everything in place. And ran into a few problems,” she said.
The school’s open house was scheduled today from 12 p.m.-4 p.m. and while they were able to print out schedules, teachers still cannot access the systems they need to go through a successful day of school.
“I’ve had to do a lot of ing this morning and calming. Being the calm force in the building,” Clark said.
How parents and kids are getting prepared for new school year
Students in Aiken and Edgefield counties head back to the classroom Monday, so several events are being held to get students and parents ready.
Health centers
Many local health care systems are up and running.
“Our health system has not been directly impacted by CrowdStrike’s technology issue and we are working with our vendors to understand any issues they may be facing. We do not expect the incident to impact our ability to provide care to our patients,” Doctors Hospital spokeswoman Lindsey Black said.
The adjacent JMS Burn Center also has been unaffected.
Piedmont Augusta hospital said it didn’t know the extent of the outage’s impact and would get back to News 12 with more information.
Wellstar’s systems were affected and are coming back online. The Georgia health care giant – which operates Wellstar MCG hospital in Augusta – said patients who have a procedure scheduled for Friday should their facility.
Crews battle 4 structure fires in a week across Aiken County
Crews have battled four structure fires in a week in Aiken County, according to authorities.
What happened?
The CrowdStrike issue affected Microsoft 365 apps and services, and escalating disruptions continued hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing it.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.
CrowdStrike said in an emailed statement that the company “is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”
It said: “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”
CrowdStrike also said in a recording on its customer service line that the problem was related to “the Falcon sensor,” referring to one of its products used to block online attacks. The company says it has 29,000 customers.
In an interview on NBC’s “Today Show,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologized, saying the company was “deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies.”
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