Are hospitals, police and city services impacted by the Microsoft outage in Ottawa?
Posted Jul 19, 2024 11:47:51 AM.
Last Updated Jul 19, 2024 03:11:33 PM.
Amid a global technology disruption by the Microsoft outage on Friday morning, some services in Ottawa were impacted.
The now resolved issue caused widespread outages disrupting flights, banks, media outlets and companies around the world after an update to an internal program by company CrowdStrike went awry.
CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company that is believed to be at the heart of the global Microsoft outage. The outage happened when a “faulty update” was used on computers running Microsoft Windows.
Locally this means people felt the impacts of the tech giant’s issues through work, personal devices or even flights in and out of the nation’s capital.
Krista Kealey, vice president of communications and public consultation for the Ottawa Airport Authority, told CityNews, mainly Porter Airline passengers were impacted.
“There are a lot of Porter flights cancelled, so those passengers need to be rebooked re-accommodated,” she said in an interview. “In terms of our other carriers, the check in process was fine for them. For the most part, their flights were leaving pretty much on schedule.”
Despite the issues centering on one Canadian airline, Kealey said multiple U.S. companies were also impacted.
“There are a lot of flights grounded in the U.S. and a lot of airports are impacted. So that could that could cause some further ripples, but, but we’re hoping that it’ll be minimized,” she said.
According to a post on X, the Ottawa International Airport is impacted by the outage causing flights to either be delayed or cancelled on Friday morning.
“Passengers should check with their airlines for the most up-to-date information,” the post reads.
On social media people are sharing photos and videos of long lines at the airport, that is causing frustration for passengers and employees.
Depending on the technology and programs running the behind-the-scenes of many services in the nation’s capital, companies and organizations may also be impacted.
The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario told CityNews in an email that it is affected by the CrowdStrike outage.
“We are providing services as planned using workarounds where needed,” the hospital said in an email. “We do not anticipate any impact on our services offered to children and their families today.”
Early Friday between 1:30 a.m. and 5:45 a.m. The Queensway Carleton Hospital was impacted by the CrowdStrike outage.
“During that time, we experienced an outage of our health record system,” it said in a post on X. “Staff moved to our established downtime procedures.”
No impacts to surgeries and appointments are occurring and the system has been restored.
The Ottawa Hospital said it is not having any disruptions to services as of Friday morning, but it will “continue to monitor the situation.”
The City of Ottawa said its municipal services are not impacted by the outage.
“The City of Ottawa is actively monitoring the situation and is working closely with our Microsoft representatives to receive regular updates,” Jason Barney, Associate Chief Information Officer, said in an email.
The Ottawa police, fire and paramedics are not experiencing any IT issues and services are operating as normal.
