Several major operations in Lexington, including the University of Kentucky, Blue Grass Airport, local hospitals and a city service, reported technological disruptions due to a worldwide outage several businesses Friday.
CrowdStrike, a global cybersecurity firm, first started reporting issues around 4:46 a.m., according to downdetector.com. The outage impacted airports, hospitals, banks, media outlets, companies and services around the world dependent on CrowdStrike’s software.
UK said its UK Healthcare facilities were experiencing disruptions due to the outage. UK systems impacted by the outage are Microsoft Windows desktops and servers and myUK, an online portal for employees, managers and business officers.
UK officials are trying to minimize the impact to patient care and patient-care activities, UK said.
Baptist Health experiencing technical issues
Baptist Health in Lexington reported disruptions as a result of Friday’s outage. The disruption is impacting the hospital network’s ability to sustain normal operations, which resulted in the postponement of some procedures.
“Our number one priority is ensuring our patients continue to receive the highest-level of care as this incident is investigated and resolved,” Baptist Health said in a statement.
“We understand this incident is an inconvenience and appreciate everyone’s patience and cooperation during this time,” Baptist Health said.
LEXserv online portal impacted by outage
The online billing portal for LEXserv was unable to process online payments for some customers for several hours on Friday as a result of the CrowdStrike outage. The city said people who weren’t able to pay a bill online should call 859-280-8047 or visit 218 E. Main Street to pay their bill.
As of 2:30 p.m. Friday, all city services are operating normally, according to the city.
Lexington flight delays, cancellations because of global internet outage
Multiple Delta Airlines flights at Blue Grass Airport were delayed by at least an hour Friday morning, according to the airport’s flight status board . One Delta flight to Atlanta scheduled to take off at 10:34 a.m. has been canceled.
As of 3 p.m. there were five flights delayed — two Delta and three American Airlines flights — at Blue Grass Airport, according to the airport’s flight status board. One Delta flight heading to Atlanta was delayed over three hours.
All flights scheduled to take off after 6 p.m. are still showing an on-time departure, according to the airport’s flight status board.
Lauren Simmerman, Community Relations Manager at the airport, said the Federal Aviation Administration instituted a global ground stop on all Delta, American and United flights, which impacted operations at Blue Grass Airport. Simmerman added the ground stop for American and Delta flights has been lifted and flights are departing from the airport.
Several flights out of Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport were delayed and a few more were canceled Friday morning, according to the airport’s flight status board. More flights out of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport were delayed as well.
Lexington TV stations off the air
Local TV stations were also affected by the global outage. WLEX-18 originally said its morning news broadcast would not air but later clarified its morning news broadcast did air at 6 a.m.
“We appreciate your patience as we worked through the issue,” the TV station said in a Facebook post.
UPDATE: LIVE AT 6 A.M. LEX 18 News at Sunrise will air this morning starting at 6 a.m., following a global IT outage took us offline. We appreciate your patience as we worked through the issue!
Posted by LEX 18 on Friday, July 19, 2024
Was internet outage a cyberattack?
George Kurtz, President and CEO of CrowdStrike, said on X, said the outage is not a security incident or cyberattack and the issue has been identified. The cybersecurity firm is working with customers impacted by the outage 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,” Kurtz said on X. “We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”
According to the Associated Press, DownDectector, tracks user-reported disruptions to internet services.
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