A Friday morning global tech outage has impacted multiple institutions that operate in and around Northeast Ohio thus affecting area customers and clients.
The outage impacted Enbridge Gas Ohio’s call center, some flights at the Akron-Canton Airport, the city of Akron, Cleveland Clinic and the E-ZPass website.
Statewide agencies such as the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services (ODJFS) and Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) and Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) have also reported impacts.
U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which claims it’s used by over half of Fortune 500 companies, said a faulty system update caused the outage. Microsoft’s Windows Operating System was also impacted, USA TODAY reports.
What is CrowdStrike?: What to know about cybersecurity company tied to global tech outage
Many businesses likely impacted; some possibly will need to wait on ‘slammed’ outsourced IT services
The outage was specific to Microsoft Windows but not Mac or Linux, said Tyler Hudak, practice lead in incident response at TrustedSec, a Fairlawn-based cybersecurity consulting firm.
A Beacon Journal reporter asked Hudak if TrustedSec is keeping a list of the number of institutions that have been impacted by the outage.
“It may be actually easier to list institutions that are not impacted by something like this,” Hudak said.
For organizations that do not have a “good disaster recover plan, or has a small IT department, they could very well be down for days to weeks,” Hudak said.
Outage impacts Ohio: CrowdStrike outage disrupts services at Ohio BMV, local hospitals and others
Some small- to medium-sized companies outsource their information technology (IT), he said.
Outsourced IT providers, he said, are “probably getting slammed with calls right now, and, so, there’s going to be a delay if [businesses] have to wait for a third party to recover their systems from this.
“I honestly suspect that some companies may disable or uninstall CrowdStrike, which removes a bit of protection on systems,” Hudak added. “And so I think over the next couple of weeks, we may start getting an increased volume of calls of people calling us and saying, ‘Hey, our CrowdStrike systems — our protection — was disabled. We need somebody to come in and figure out if attackers did anything during that time,’ because if their protections are disabled, that’s a great opportunity for an attacker to move in and move undetected within their environment.”
Enbridge Gas Ohio, formerly Dominion Energy Ohio, is having technical issues at its call center because of the outage, the utility shared in a statement.
Enbridge customers who experience gas emergencies should call 911 if their calls to the utility go unanswered.
According to the statement, customers who smell gas should immediately leave the area, warn other people to stay away and call 911 from a safe place.
People who suspect gas leaks should not try to adjust natural gas valves; not use a lighter, strike a match or smoke; not use any electric switches, phones (including cellphones), flashlights or garage door openers; and not start or stop vehicles, machinery or anything else that could spark.
Some flights delayed at Akron-Canton Airport
The outage delayed some arrivals and departures at Akron-Canton Airport in Green, but operations within the airport itself were normal, spokesman Christian McCauley said.
Although the airport’s online flight information was showing no cancellations on Friday morning, and some delays, McCauley said that information may not be accurate because the information technology outage may have interrupted airline communications.
He advised travelers to contact airlines directly to verify anticipated arrival and departure times. Carriers serving Akron-Canton Airport are American Airlines, United Airlines, Breeze Airways and Allegiant Air.
Outage impacted city of Akron, but not 911 dispatch
The city of Akron shared a news release Friday morning stating that the outage “has impacted some city devices and servers although the core city services were not disrupted.”
The city’s 911 dispatch operations are still in operation and working as intended, the release said. Water and wastewater services did not experience any disruptions, either.
Users of city services could see slight delays with accessing the 311 website, Utilities Business Office, Income Tax and city golf courses, according to the release.
The city’s IT workers are working on bringing departments and systems online, per the release, which also said all city buildings are remaining open to public access and all city employees are reporting to work.
“We appreciate the patience and understanding of our residents as our staff work as quickly as possible to respond to this widespread outage,” Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said in a prepared statement. “Our critical and core city functions and services are working as intended and we expect to have all other functionality back up and running very soon. I want to express my sincere appreciation to our IT staff for their diligence which quickly caught these issues last night and their swift work at addressing the problems to provide a fix.”
Those with questions can call 3-1-1 to speak to a customer service representative.
ODJFS experiencing disruptions
According to an Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services spokesperson, the global Crowdstrike issue is disrupting some ODJFS services and operations.
Some Stark County systems down due to outage
Some Stark County computer systems remain offline following the outage.
County Auditor Alan Harold, who oversees the county IT department, said IT employees have been working since midnight to address outages.
Most departments are now up and running, he said, but there are still outages in the Recorder’s Office and the Probate Office. The county is actively addressing it, Harold said.
“Anticipate that coming online very soon,” he said. “All offices were affected, but all have some level of functionality [besides the Recorder’s Office and Probate Office].”
Job and Family Services is still experiencing some delays that Harold said may affect phone lines. It is a state-run system, so his department is working with the state to address it.
To address the outage, staff must update all 300 county servers. They are down to less than 30 that still need fixed.
Harold said he expects issues to be resolved soon.
County offices are open as outages are being addressed. Harold recommended that members of the public call in for assistance before coming in person.
County Administrator Brant Luther said the public should still be able to access services.
“Services are not disrupted to the point where people still can’t get the help that they need,” he said.
Cleveland Clinic impacted, but patient care has not been affected
Some technology that Cleveland Clinic uses is currently affected, according to statement from the hospital system.
However, patient care is not impacted, and the hospital system is continuing to provide care at all locations, the statement said.
Services disrupted at Ohio BMV
The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles reported on X that some BMV and Title services may not be available due to the outage.
Outage affecting PUCO
The PUCO reported on X that the CrowdStrike issue is disrupting some commission services and operations, including the Docketing Information System and call center.
Ohio Department of Education and Workforce experiencing communication issues
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce could not be reached via phone due to calls not going through and the website appears to be down.
E-ZPass website experiencing issues
Users of the E-ZPass website may experience some issues from the outage that the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission plans to quickly resolve, the commission shared on Facebook.
The Beacon Journal will continue to report on this story and will provide updates as they become available.