Cyber outage forces all Kansas driver’s license stations to close

TOPEKA ( KSNT ) – A major technology outage caused disruptions across the world, and here in Kansas.

One of the most notable closures was driver’s license offices . Friday, driver’s license stations across the Sunflower State were shut down with no advance notice, leaving people upset.

Cindy Collins made a trip to the office and was surprised to find the doors locked.

“I’m a little shocked,” she said.

Scott Akerstrom shared the confusion.

“I was like what the heck. Like, why is it closed? I didn’t know about any cyber outage,” Akerstrom said.

Crowdstrike, a Texas based cybersecurity company, said a worldwide outage was caused by a defect in a software update it deployed to Windows computers that use its software.

Steven Blount came to the office to renew his driver’s license. He was disappointed about what he had to give up to do so.

“I took a half-day’s vacation. I was going to do that and a couple of other things this afternoon, but wasted a day of vacation. Half a day of vacation at least,” Blount said.

Kansas courts proceeded with all scheduled hearings Friday, but had to work without their computers. Local emergency operators and many police officers were also forced to put pen to paper. However, 9-1-1 lines were unaffected. Many state websites went down as well, with phone lines going along with it.

Eric McCracken wished that someone would have let him know the offices were closed before he made the trip.

“It would have been good to have a notice or something put on and put out there that they was going to be closed this Friday. You know, it would’ve helped a lot,” McCracken said.

State officials tell 27 News that they’ve identified the problem, and are currently working to get all their computers back up and running for business on Monday.

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