Global IT outage hits Fresno television stations, airport, banking

The global IT outage being called the largest in history and Y2K come to life has disrupted business operations in the Central Valley.

Local television stations saw their morning news broadcasts disrupted by the outage of Microsoft 365-based apps and services. For some, the problems began Thursday night.

ABC 30 experienced difficulties during its Action News Live at 11 newscast Thursday night. Warren Armstrong, Margot Kim, Stephen Hicks and Christine Gregory continued the show in the studio through Facebook Live.

KMPH Fox 26 also experienced Microsoft’s dreaded “blue screen of death” Friday morning and was off the air. The station announced at 5 a.m. that Great Day would be off-air indefinitely until further notice. Justin Willis continued to give weather updates on Facebook through the outage. Christina Lopez also shared her live desk update on Facebook, informing viewers about the Microsoft outage.

KMPH restored service at 8:30 a.m., reporting that the massive disruption affected companies and services worldwide, highlighting dependence on software from a handful of providers.

The outage impacted businesses worldwide. Customers at certain locations were asked to pay with cash only while systems were down, Starbucks stores around the globe were impacted by the outage.

The glitch, caused by a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to computers running Microsoft Windows, also impacted banks.

Bakersfield-based Valley Strong Credit Union, which opened its 32nd branch in Hanford in May, reported on social media that its online banking portal may not be available on desktop computers, though access was still available on the mobile app. They reported that their contact center wait time was higher than normal.

Valley Strong Credit Union has more than 360,000 members and nearly $4 billion in assets.

Vikkie Calderon, Fresno airport spokesperson, said airlines at Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT) have reported 12 flight cancellations and 12 delays beginning last night and expected to last through the day.

She said airline personnel are working diligently to get travelers where they need to be.

“With the global technology issue impacting several airlines this morning, passengers are urged to please check your flight status with your airline prior to heading to the airport,” local airport officials warned on social media Friday morning.

Genelle Taylor Kumpe, CEO of the San Joaquin Valley Manufacturing Alliance, said Friday at least one of their member companies was down briefly by the outage. Another saw that its truck tracking services through Verizon go down.

Local government servers down

The County of Fresno has been impacted by the widespread global
technology outage. About 400 of the County’s computer servers were down but are now all running. At least 3,500 workstation laptops or computers are still adversely affected. Each computer must be manually re-
booted, which is a time-consuming process, according to a statement.

The County is prioritizing the updating and re-booting of systems in mission critical areas involving emergency services, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office and jails, the Juvenile Justice Center, Hall of Records, and Child Welfare Services, among others.

Because of the time required to bring computers and systems back online, several of the County’s departments will not be able to respond to the public in a timely manner.

Furthermore, many of the County’s information is dependent on the State’s systems, which are also down and undergoing updates.

Throughout this incident, the County has not experienced any breach of employee or resident information. The County appreciates the dedication of its IT staff from the Internal Services Division who have been working on this issue since almost 1 a.m. this morning.

The County will give another update in the afternoon.

What happened?

Friday’s chaos began with a faulty update was pushed out from CrowdStrike. In a Friday post on social media platform X, President and CEO George Kurtz cited a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts” — noting that Mac and Linux hosts were not impacted.

But, because scores of companies rely on CrowdStrike for their security needs with Windows as their operating system, the consequences of this kind of technical problem are far-reaching.

Long lines formed at airports in the U.S., Europe and Asia as airlines lost access to check-in and booking services during peak summer travel. Banks in South Africa and New Zealand reported outages impacting payments and online services. And hospitals had problems with their appointment systems, while officials in some U.S. states warned of 911 problems in their areas.

DownDectector, which tracks user-reported disruptions to internet services, recorded that airlines, payment platforms and online shopping websites across the world were affected — although the disruption appeared piecemeal and was apparently related to whether the companies used Microsoft cloud-based services.

T-Mobile, Charles Schwab, Walmart, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Visa are among the companies experiencing problems Friday morning, according to DownDetector.

Health systems

In Los Angeles, the Cedars-Sinai Health System remained open and continued to provide care. Spokesperson Christina Elston said the system was affected by the outage but that they were working to address the issue and limit its impact.

Harris Health System, which runs public hospitals and clinics in the Houston area, said it had to suspend hospital visits “until further notice” due to the outage. Elective hospital procedures were being canceled and rescheduled. Clinic appointments were initially impacted, but in a post later on X, the health system said that its health centers were now open for such appointments.

A spokesperson for the Cleveland Clinic said patient care has not been affected by the outage, but it was affecting some technology the clinic uses. She said the health system is providing care at all locations.

A spokesperson for HCA Healthcare said the health system didn’t expect the technology issue to affect its ability to provide care. Nashville, Tennessee-based HCA runs 188 hospitals and about 2,400 care sites around the country.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said it was pausing the start of any procedures that require anesthesia The New York-based care provider said it was dealing with systems issues related to the technology disruption.

There have been no reports of major disruptions with local health systems. An update from Community Health System is expected later Friday.

Valley Children’s Healthcare experienced a brief disruption Friday that did not impact patient care, said spokesperson Zara Arboleda.

“Our Information Technology Services team quickly resolved the faulty software update that affected our systems and businesses throughout the world,” according to a statement.

Emergency call centers in some US states report outages

Officials in some U.S. states, including Alaska, Virginia and Iowa, warned of problems to 911 emergency call centers in their areas. Alaska State Troopers warned that many 911 and nonemergency call centers across the state weren’t working correctly and shared alternate numbers.

In Virginia, the City of Fairfax Police Department said on social media that it was experiencing technical difficulties with its phone systems, including 911. The department shared a nonemergency number for callers and said 911 could still be used, but calls wouldn’t go directly to the dispatch center.

The New Hampshire Emergency Services and Communications reported a temporary interruption to 911 calls early Friday, with the system fully restored several hours later, officials said. In Iowa, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office warned on social media that phone lines were down and 911 calls might be routed to neighboring counties, but emergency calls would be promptly redirected to the sheriff’s office.

In New England, the outage led some hospitals to cancel appointments.

A spokesman at Mass General Brigham, the largest health care system in Massachusetts, said the outage had resulted in all scheduled nonurgent surgeries, procedures and medical visits being canceled for Friday. Emergency departments remain open and care for patients in the hospital hasn’t been impacted.

Ben Hensley and the Associated Press Contributed to this report.