Monroe County impacted by worldwide Microsoft outages

Editor’s Note: The full live stream is available for viewing at the bottom of this page .

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Monroe County’s IT systems are experiencing disruptions amid a Microsoft and CrowdStrike outage.

On Friday morning, multiple airlines and services around the world were affected due to the outages. Some airlines are facing a global ground stop. Other services affected worldwide include hospitals, 911 call centers, banks, media outlets, and more.

According to County Executive Adam Bello, the outage impacted 3,500 county devices, including emergency communications and nearly all county operations. About 2,500 of those devices were back online shortly after 5:30 p.m., Bello said in a tweet .

Many infrastructure systems such as sewage and water were not affected, but all county-facing operations have been impacted.

The number has dropped to just under 3,000 county devices. Monroe County currently has an automated fix underway, but it could take several days to gain access to the devices. A manual fix is also underway.

Several county buildings were closed on Friday due to the outage. These include the County Office Building, the County Clerk’s Office, all DMV locations, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Public Health’s public-facing operations.

The following will remain open:

• The Monroe County Court System – Jurors are required to report.
• Seneca Park Zoo
• County Parks
• Department of Transportation
• Medical Examiner’s Office
• Department of Environmental Services
• Probation
• Monroe Community Hospital

All 911 and emergency communications are operating on backup systems. Monroe County essential employees are asked to report from work and non-essential employees are asked to work from home. Residents may still call 911 as normal.

The University of Rochester Medical Center released a statement saying multiple computers that serve critical functions are down and many Urgent Care Centers, lab draw stations, ambulance practices, and patient call centers will have a delayed opening. Strong Memorial Hospital’s emergency and inpatient care continues without interruption.

URMC also said MyChart is available for communications, the electronic medical record system is unaffected, and safe patient care continues as normal. As of Friday afternoon, all outpatient clinics and Urgent Cares are open and half of all lab patient service centers are open. All patient call centers are working at less than normal capacity.

Meanwhile, Rochester Regional Health released a statement saying all of its hospitals and outpatient sites are fully operational.

The Town of Irondequoit took to social media to announce that all business operations will be delayed until its systems become available.

The county released a statement that County Executive Adam Bello activated the Emergency Operations Center at 4 a.m. Friday morning.

Those heading to the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport are asked to check their flights for any delays or cancellations.

CrowdStrike released a statement saying this is not a cyberattack nor a security incident and is working to remedy the defect found in the latest update for Windows.

Full Live-Stream

Full Statement from CrowdStrike

“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. 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.”

Full Statement from URMC

URMC is responding to the global Crowdstrike software issue.  Our electronic medical record system has not been affected, and safe patient care is ongoing. However, multiple computers that support clinical functions are down. A fix has been issued, and our IT team is working urgently to reinstate all impacted systems with a focus on maintaining patient care.

As of 9 a.m., emergency and inpatient care at Strong Memorial Hospital are continuing without interruption.  MyChart is also available for patient communications.  We are working to ensure that elective procedures and outpatient appointments also take place as scheduled.  However, there will be delays in the opening of many Urgent Care Centers, lab draw stations, ambulatory practices, and patient call centers. We appreciate our patients’ understanding as we work to restore full operations as quickly as possible.

We will post frequent updates on MyChart, UR Medicine social media accounts, and the URMC Newsroom page during the day.

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