A sweeping technology outage on Friday disrupted daily operations for businesses and government agencies worldwide, including a number within Bucks County.
The outage, which impacted everything from airline operations at Philadelphia International Airport to local hospitals, was triggered by a problematic software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
The problem caused computers running Windows Client and Windows Server to enter a continuous restart loop, which is commonly known as the “blue screen of death.”
Local government agencies did report some problems, but emergency services were not seriously impacted.
The county government was working to restore some computers and mitigate other problems, but county staff remained on the job and critical systems were up, said James O’Malley, a county spokesperson.
PennDOT said the state’s driver and vehicle services experienced disruptions Friday.
“We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to resolve all issues as quickly as possible,” PennDOT officials shared on social media.
Gov. Josh Shapiro was briefed on the issues with PennDOT and other state agencies.
In a statement, the governor said the state’s systems were restored by afternoon.
Philadelphia International Airport saw long lines as airlines faced problems due to the outage.
Michelle Aliprantis, the spokesperson for Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol Township, said the hospital’s operations were running smoothly.
“Despite the obstacles posed by national IT challenges, Lower Bucks Hospital stands resilient and fully operational, dedicated to serving our community through our Emergency Room, outpatient, and inpatient services,” she said.
Jason Griffith, a spokesperson for Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, which operates St. Mary Medical Center in Middletown Township, said there were some problems with applications and certain workstations early in the morning. However, steps were taken once the problem was found.
“Only a small percentage of our servers were affected. The majority of the technical issues have been remediated, and there has been no impact to patient safety,” he said.
Jefferson Bucks Hospital in Falls Township reported no operational issues due to the outage, said spokesperson Irene Contreras Reyes.
At Doylestown Hospital, several computer systems were impacted starting in the early morning hours.
“These issues have not adversely affected patient safety or patient care at Doylestown Hospital, and resulted in minimal disruption of outpatient appointments. Quick work on the part of Doylestown Health’s information technology personnel has restored nearly all impacted systems as of mid-morning,” said spokesperson Angela Linch.
The White House confirmed President Joe Biden was briefed about the widespread disruptions to private sector and government operations.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz addressed the issue early Friday in a statement and said the disruption was not due to a cyberattack.
“We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our company,” Kurtz said on NBC’s “The Today Show.”
By mid-morning, Microsoft had resolved the underlying issue caused by the CrowdStrike update, according to the company.
