BUFFALO, N.Y. — A global tech outage was cited as the reason Erie County auto branches will be closed Saturday.
"The Erie County Clerk’s Office is coordinating with New York State DMV's IT department to get our six Auto Bureau branches back online so that we can conduct customer transactions and return to normal operations as soon as possible," the county clerk's office said in a statement Friday night.
Typically, the county's Eastern Hills Mall (Williamsville) and the Southgate Plaza (West Secena) locations would be open on Saturday. But a massive disruption with CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that provides software to scores of companies worldwide, caused problems worldwide on Friday.
"Customers that have a scheduled appointment for July 20 will receive next-step instructions in their email," the clerk's office said. "Walk-in customers are asked to say tuned to our social media or local news outlets for operational updates.
"We apologize for any inconvenience as we work with the New York State DMV to restore services."
The massive tech outage caused worldwide disruptions on Friday, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it was not immune to it. For travelers, that meant delays at airports and land crossings.
"On July 19, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is experiencing processing delays due to the global technology outage," the agency said Friday afternoon in a statement.
Patience was encouraged by the federal agency, which said the Automated Commercial Environment, CBP One, Simplified Arrival, and the Global Entry Mobile App were all operational.