Cancellations and Local Effects of CrowdStrike Global Software Outage (UPDATED)

As a result of a global software outage this early morning of Friday, July 19, 2024 - reportedly caused by a lapse of the cybersecurity platform, CrowdStrike and not a cyberattack - the following announcements have been made that may affect local residents' travel plans and medical procedures today:

• Mass General Brigham, which operates Newton-Wellesley Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, has announced it is cancelling "all previously scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and medical visits" for today, Friday, July 19, 2024. MGB is still caring for currently admitted patients and is still open for urgent care and emergencies.

• Beth Israel Lahey Health, which operates Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital locations, has announced that its locations are open and patients should plan to arrive for their scheduled appointments, unless otherwise notified by a medical care team member.

• Boston Logan Airport announced around 7:30 a.m. this morning that many flights are delayed or cancelled. It advises the public to check with the airline before coming to the airport.

• MBTA reports that bus and station signage may be incorrect or unavailable due to the outage.

Around 9:00 a.m., the Department of Homeland Security announced that it is working with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, along with Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and federal, state, and local infrastructure partners to address system outages.

The scramble to bring worldwide systems back online comes following a reported lapse of service from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity platform. It has caused Microsoft problems, 911 outages in some areas of the country, and cancellations or disruptions in travel, financial, and medical business.

Around 6:30 a.m. on Friday morning, President and CEO of CrowdStrike George Kurtz posted to X the following statement:

"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. "

Updated 7/19/2024 at 10:31 a.m.

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