BUFFALO, N.Y. — An tech outage has disrupted flights, banks, media outlets and companies across the world, with problems continuing for hours.
Airlines in the United States, Europe, Australia and India were reporting problems, with some flights grounded. Retail outlets, banks, railway companies and hospitals in several parts of the world were also affected in what appeared to be an unprecedented internet disruption.
2 On Your Side checked with local hospitals, police agencies and grocery stores to see how they were affected. This is what we know:
EMERGENCY SERVICES
- A City of Buffalo spokesperson says 911 services have not been impacted.
- Niagara County Sheriff's Office says their 911 services are operational
- Genesee County Sheriff's Office says their 911 services are operational.
- Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office says their computers were done overnight, but now are operational.
- Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office says everything is functional
- Erie County Sheriff's Office says they are operational
- Niagara County's Government Departments is encouraging those who may have to conduct business with the county today to call beforehand to make sure certain services are working
HOSPITALS
- Kaleida Health says patient services are not affected by the outage at their hospitals, which also includes; Oishei Children's Hospital, Buffalo General, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital.
- ECMC says their patient services are not affected
- The VA Western New York Healthcare System is operating as normal and has had no technology disruptions from the global IT issue.
- Catholic Health says they are able to continue to provide patient care. They did have some communication delays and their IT department is working to bring back affected systems.
BUFFALO CITY HALL
- Buffalo City Hall is open. Officials say if you are coming to City Hall to do business including paying bills, etc., services may be delayed as some computer systems are down at this time. Management Information Systems (MIS) is working with each department to resolve any issues.
ERIE COUNTY
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz says the county's "life-safety systems", including 911 are operational. If you have an appointment with Erie County Social Services to apply for social services or the Erie County Clerk's office for a DMV matter, that those systems are tied into New York State systems that is inoperable at the moment and not to come to locations until the state is back online.
CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY
- Chautauqua County reported numerous computers and servers within our network were affected by the global technology outage impacting Microsoft and CrowdStrike. Their IT team is working to address and resolve these issues. The restoration process will take some time. 911 services remain operational, certain emergency-related applications experienced disruptions, but have since been fully restored. Despite the ongoing technical challenges, all county government offices will be open for business, but ask residents for patience as they work to restore services.
GROCERY STORES
- Tops Friendly Markets says their systems and registers are working.
- A Wegmans spokesperson said they were impacted. However, their stores remain open and their point of sales systems are online and operating.
BANKS
- KeyBank tells 2 On Your Side that they are aware of the global issue and will continue to investigate any impact this issue may have on their third party services.
- Thea Pecht, a spokesperson for M&T Bank provided an update: "Following limited disruptions caused by an update to cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike's software, all bank services have been restored as of 12:00pm ET."
- Northwest Bank sent their customers an email stating the global outage "may impact some Northwest Bank financial centers and other operations." They say online and mobile banking, and their customer contact center are functioning normally.
New York State Chief Cyber Officer Colin Ahern issued this statement:
“We are aware of an issue affecting Windows computers running a third party security software tool that is impacting systems and services worldwide. It is not a security incident or cyberattack.
“We are working with our agencies, local governments, and the third party service provider to resolve any issues on impacted systems. Our priority is to ensure all 911 systems across New York are operational and able to address emergency response needs. The third party has identified a fix for the underlying issue and the New York State Office of Information Technology Services is actively working with other state agencies on a resolution. We do not yet have a timeline for full restoration.
“Governor Hochul is closely monitoring impacts to critical infrastructure, including finance and transportation. We recognize the impact this is having on services, not only across New York but also globally.”
We'll continue to update this story as more information becomes available.