Coast casinos, other business disrupted by global computer outage. Here’s what we know

The effects of a global IT outage are being felt Friday in South Mississippi, where some flights are canceled and casinos and other businesses have had to go to manual operations.

Emergency 911 services appear to be functioning on the Coast. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and Gulfport Police Department reported no disruptions to 911 lines or other systems. The Hancock and Harrison County sheriff’s offices did not immediately respond to messages Friday morning.

Some of the casinos have been affected, “but not to the point they had to close,” said Jay McDaniel, executive director of Mississippi Gaming Commission.

A few of the systems on the casino floor and in the hotels and other non-casino amenities were affected, he said, particularly at Beau Rivage Resort & Casino and IP Casino Biloxi, which have nationwide computer networks.

“Surveillance isn’t down or anything like that,” McDaniel said. If that were the case, he said, the casinos wouldn’t be operating.

The issues began early Friday, when cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike experienced a major disruption linked to a tech update, according to CNBC. Companies using Microsoft Windows and other systems were forced to go to manual operations and in some cases to close.

There are reports of some gas stations operating on cash only.

For those who need to get cash, Hancock Whitney Bank reports normal operations at their banks and ATMs, said Paul Maxwell, director of communications. “We do not use CrowdStrike,” he said. Some of their vendors do use the cybersecurity system, he said. “Our IT teams are monitoring the company systems very closely.”

Medical facilities also are feeling some impacts, but there aren’t any direct impacts at Memorial Hospital Gulfport, said communications manager Erin Rosetti. “The global outage is not directly impacting patient care at this time” she said.

“Singing River Health System is not a CrowdStrike customer and is not directly affected,” said Ashley Butsch, public relations manager. “However, some patients, third-party support, and third-party connections may be affected if they have CrowdStrike. We are business as normal and not impacted like other health systems.”

There are also reports of pharmacies not being able to fill prescriptions because of issues accessing insurance information.

Butler Pharmacy in Gulfport is struggling to process Medicaid claims, said owner and pharmacist Racheal Butler. She said she went to work Friday morning and immediately noticed she could not log in to the Medicaid portal. She learned about the outage when she clicked on her system’s digital help desk.

“It’s crazy how its affecting airlines and healthcare,” she said. She does not know when the issues will end. But Medicaid is the only insurance payer where she is seeing problems, and she said luckily, none of her Medicaid customers were scheduled to pick up prescriptions on Friday.

On the fast-food front, the McDonald’s on Cedar Lake Road in Biloxi reported only minor problems in its computer system, which did not affect the functioning of the restaurant.

Mobile ordering was unavailable Friday morning at Starbucks outside the Edgewater Mall in Biloxi. Baristas were giving away basic coffees with flavor, either iced or hot, but were unable to fill other orders.

Staff at the Starbucks on Crossroads Parkway in Gulfport said they were greeted by “the blue screen of death” when they arrived to work, like other businesses across the nation.The first few hours of the day were trying, according to staff. They rebooted their system and disabled mobile orders, but before the noon lunch rush, all systems were up and business had leveled to about a normal day.

Staff writers Mary Perez, Martha Sanchez, Anita Lee, John Buzbee and Sam Hughes contributed to this report. The Sun Herald will continue to update this article.