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CNN News
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A global software outage on Friday brought many computer systems across the business, health care, technology and government sectors to a standstill for less than 12 hours.
How did the crash happen? Which systems have recovered, and which are still affected? We break it down. (All times Eastern Time.)
Thursday night and early Friday morning, 911 centers and transportation services were disrupted.
On Thursday night into Friday, several states, including Alaska and Arizona, experienced 911 service outages. Some hospitals also began experiencing technology issues overnight, according to nurses on duty.
Between 2 and 3 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration announced that all Delta and American Airlines flights were canceled. Minutes later, the FAA said that flights from United and Allegiant Airlines were canceled, regardless of destination.
Spirit Airlines said its flight reservation system was also affected by the outage.
Hours later, between 5 and 6 a.m., public transit systems in the Northeast began announcing that they had been affected. Public transit service in Washington, D.C., including trains and buses, began experiencing delays, according to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
In New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, North America’s largest transit network, said its customer information system was temporarily inaccessible, but train and bus service remained unaffected.
At 5:30 a.m., US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike notified customers that it was “aware of reports of compromise” of its software on Microsoft Windows operating systems, according to a company advisory seen by CNN. CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software — used by many Fortune 500 companies — detects and blocks hacking threats.
Between 6 and 7 a.m., the White House launched an investigation and global banks reported problems.
Between 6 and 7 am: A White House National Security Council spokesperson told CNN that they are “aware of the incident and are investigating the matter and its impact.” A White House source familiar with the matter told CNN that there is currently no indication of malicious activity, though the government is still investigating.
Global banks have begun reporting service disruptions, including Australia’s Commonwealth Bank, South Africa’s Capitec and Bank of Israel. Australian lenders ANZ and Westpac were also affected, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks cyber outages. Downdetector has also reported issues for New Zealand’s ASB Bank.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler issued an emergency declaration in response to an outage affecting the Emergency Communications Bureau’s Computer Aided Dispatch system used to receive emergency calls. The bureau began taking calls manually, according to the mayor’s office.
Meanwhile, United Airlines announced it would resume “some flights.”
Between 8 and 9am, some flights resumed operations but the airport was preparing for a busy day.
Delta Air Lines is resuming some flight departures and issuing travel relief to impacted customers.
A spokesman for Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in Atlanta said the system is operational and the airport is deploying additional customer service personnel to address the challenges they are facing.
The spokesperson urged customers to “be patient. We strive to be friendly and patient with all our passengers. We ask for the same.”
On Friday morning, Charlotte Douglas International Airport, an American Airlines hub, advised passengers not to go to the airport “unless they have confirmed their flight information with the airline.” Officials at Miami International Airport, another American Airlines hub, also warned travelers that U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations have been affected nationwide, “resulting in international passenger arrivals currently being processed manually at a slower pace.”
Between 9 a.m. and noon, federal agencies were involved and Biden was briefed.
Shortly before 9 a.m., Alaska State Police and the Phoenix Police Department in Arizona said service at their 911 centers was back up and running after emergency and non-emergency call centers were affected.
Portland’s Computer Aided Dispatch system was also back online by 9 a.m.
“At no time was the public’s ability to make emergency calls to 911 disrupted,” the mayor’s office said in a news release. “The life-saving, essential services of public safety agencies, including Police and Fire & Rescue, continued.”
The Federal Communications Commission announced that it was working with federal agencies to provide assistance and determine the extent of the outage after learning of “reports of system disruptions causing service interruptions, including 911.”
President Joe Biden was briefed on the CrowdStrike shutdown and his team is in communication with CrowdStrike and affected entities, a White House official said. The president’s team is also working with agencies “to get sector-by-sector updates throughout the day and is ready to provide assistance as needed,” the official said.
Around this time, more federal agencies began to get involved and report service disruptions. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to X that it was “working closely with CrowdStrike, Microsoft, and our federal, state, local, and critical infrastructure partners to comprehensively assess and address the system disruption.”
Social Security offices are closed to the public, as the agency warns the public that “longer wait times for the national 800 number are expected.”
In an internal memo seen by CNN, the US Justice Department said it was feeling the impact of the technology outage and, while it was working to find a solution, it noted it did not have an “estimated time frame for recovery.”
Mail delivery companies UPS and FedEx told CNN they were also affected by the outages. UPS said its carriers were operating and its drivers were on the road, but there could be some service delays.
Shortly after 11 a.m., CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a post on X that the firm “(understands) the seriousness of this situation and deeply regrets any inconvenience and disruption caused,” adding that the incident was not a cyberattack, and that customer data remains protected.
“The issue has been identified and a fix has been applied,” it said. “There was an issue with Falcon content updates for Windows Hosts.”
Late morning to early afternoon: canceled doctor’s and DMV appointments
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation announced that some Motor Vehicle Registration operations were impacted. Other states have also reported impacts on their driving services, including Georgia, North Carolina, Texas and Tennessee.
Around the same time, several national health care systems and hospitals announced that they had been impacted by the global outage, including the Mass General Brigham hospital system in Massachusetts, Penn Medicine in Pennsylvania, Northwell Health in New York, and Emory Healthcare in Atlanta.
While some hospitals reported delays in services, others canceled some non-urgent surgeries and office visits. Several cancer centers, including Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said they had suspended certain procedures and scheduled appointments.
In British Columbia, the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) announced its health system had been impacted, and was working to implement contingency plans to ensure care for patients.
Around 4 p.m., the New York Blood Center, which supplies blood to about 200 hospitals in the Northeastern United States, said it had set up emergency operations to distribute blood.
“The test tubes couldn’t be brought on the plane yesterday and today, so we had to drive them,” New York Blood Center senior vice president Andrea Cefarelli told CNN in a phone call. “There will be a 12-24 hour delay in getting the results.”
Blood Centers of America, which relies on shipping companies like FedEx, said it is experiencing delays in reporting test results. Executive Vice President Jenny Ficenec said blood use may have dropped because hospitals canceled elective surgeries, so the delays shouldn’t cause shortages unless the problem persists.
Blood Assurance, which supplies blood to hospitals in several Southeastern states, including Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, said a planned shipment of at least 20 platelets had been delayed due to flight delays and cancellations caused by the power outage.
“We are asking for community members’ help through donations,” Blood Assurance said in an email to CNN. “We have an incredible community of donors who always come through when we need them.”
Meanwhile, CrowdStrike CEO Kurtz has returned to social media, promising customers “full transparency” into how the global IT outage involving the company’s software occurred.
CrowdStrike will take steps “to prevent something like this from happening again,” according to a statement on the company’s website.
In a statement Saturday morning, Microsoft estimated the outage affected 8.5 million Windows devices.
That number is less than 1% of all Windows machines, according to Microsoft, but the company added that “the broad economic and social impact reflects the use of CrowdStrike by companies running many critical services.”
Various sectors are still feeling the impact of the power outage. While most airlines have resumed services, many have told customers they expect schedule disruptions to continue.
As of Saturday afternoon, at least 3,375 flights across the United States had been delayed and more than 1,200 canceled, according to data from flight tracker FlightAware. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the nation’s busiest, remains the hardest-hit. Delta Air Lines has canceled more than 500 flights, while United Airlines has canceled nearly 300, according to FlightAware.
