Airlines, businesses hit by global technology disruption
Published 1:45 pm Friday, July 19, 2024
- Individuals and companies lost more than $6.9 billion to internet crimes in 2021, a jump of more than $2 billion from 2020. (Metro Creative Services)
A major internet outage affecting Microsoft is disrupting flights, banks, media outlets and companies across the world, with problems continuing hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.
Airlines and airports in the United States, Europe, Australia, India and elsewhere were reporting problems, with some flights grounded. Retail outlets, banks, railway companies and hospitals in several parts of the world were also affected in what appeared to be an unprecedented internet disruption.
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Courts in Massachusetts and New York are disrupted by the outage
BOSTON — Courts in Massachusetts and New York saw their operations disrupted Friday by the global internet outage.
A spokesperson for the Massachusetts judiciary said about half of its workstations were down while court transcription recording systems were not operating in a number of courthouses, resulting in delays in some court sessions.
Some court proceedings were also delayed in New York because of computer problems.
In Manhattan, a criminal court proceeding for Harvey Weinstein, who is charged with rape, started 90 minutes late because of disruptions to court and corrections computer systems.
In Southern California, Orange County Superior Court also reported technical issues.
Outage forces Texas and New York to close driver’s license offices
AUSTIN, Texas — The internet outages forced Texas to close all of its driver’s license offices across the state, and New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles couldn’t process transactions online and in its offices Friday morning.
The Texas Department of Public Safety operates driver’s license offices in most of the state’s 254 counties. The agency issues, renews and updates driver licenses or state ID cards and provides driver education courses.
The department said in a statement that “there is no current estimate” on when the offices will reopen.
In New York, the DMV said that by Friday afternoon, some systems had been restored and that it could begin performing online transactions. However, some in-person services were still offline.
At least three of its DMV offices closed for the day because of the outage, according to the agency’s website.
Internet Society leader says outages ‘will happen in the future’
SAN FRANCISCO — The head of a nonprofit group that promotes building the internet says outages like the major one affecting Microsoft and causing problems across the globe will happen in the future because of “our world of complex, interconnected systems.”
“The important part is how we learn from them and how we improve the resilience of our systems, so that similar issues do not happen again,” Andrew Sullivan, CEO of the nonprofit Internet Society said Friday.
The outages disrupted flights, banks, media outlets and companies across the world, but Sulivan said there was no loss of connectivity and data continued to flow.
“This was a failure of some systems using a specific operating system and a specific vendor’s management tools,” he said. “Unfortunately, those systems were used widely and for many functions critical to people’s daily lives.”
Meanwhile, some cybersecurity experts are warning that organizations affected by the internet outage should be alert for scammers.
“Organizations should be aware and wary of that and making sure that when they’re talking about getting this problem remediated, that they’re talking to trusted organizations,” said Gartner analyst Eric Grenier. “Attackers will definitely prey on organizations as a result of this.”
Disruptions in Southern California didn’t stop flights or close ports
TUSTIN, Calif. — Ports in Southern California and the John Wayne Airport in Orange County saw some disruptions from the internet outage but still were operating.
At John Wayne Airport in Orange County, there were a dozen reported cancellations and at least 40 delays, but flights were taking off Friday morning, said AnnaSophia Servin, an airport spokesperson. The airport averages about 260 arrivals and departures each day.
“We’re processing passengers, but airlines are dealing with effects to flights and flight schedules,” Servin said.
At the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, marine terminals were affected but the outage didn’t cause significant disruption.
Mario Cordero, chief executive of the Port of Long Beach, said four marine terminals experienced computer issues but resolved them with minimal disruption. One of the Port of Los Angeles’ seven terminals had limited operations overnight, said spokesperson Phillip Sanfield.
“Basically, it’s been minimal impact overnight and we’re going to have to wait and see how these terminals come up over the next several hours,” Sanfield said.
Some US health care centers unaffected by outage, others suspend hospital visits
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.