
Friday morning, a worldwide global IT outage wreaked havoc on global businesses, disrupting travel, banking systems, and services around the world. According to cyber security firm CrowdStrike, the outage it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows. This was not a cyberattack or security incident, however, it has caused several local disruptions to travel, businesses, and other services in city of Philadelphia.
Worldwide IT Outage: How It is Impacting Philly
The Microsoft IT outage is being reported as the biggest IT outage in history. Specifically in Philadelphia, flights were delayed or canceled altogether at the Philadelphia International Airport. A reported 1,200 flights have been canceled nationally with dozens of disruptions to travel in our area.
“Last night, Frontier had some issues impacting their flights and early this morning they seemed to be back up and running, but then it started hitting other airlines,” Heather Redfern, an airport spokesperson, told FOX 29.
“American, Delta and United were in a ground stop earlier this morning, American went back to service at about 5 a.m., they are resuming their operations just like United but it will take time to get back up and running on a regular schedule.”
Additionally, Philadelphia courts were also impacted by the outage as all First Judicial Courts and offices in Philadelphia were forced to close. All cases scheduled for Friday will be rescheduled. Anyone summoned for Jury Duty today has also been excused. Updates for rescheduled cases can be found Monday on the court’s website.
The IT outage also wreaked havoc to healthcare systems with Penn Medicine reporting appointment delays and cancelations due to not having access to patient records or information.
Both SEPTA and Amtrak report all of their services are functioning as expected without delays.
Should Philadelphians Be Aware Of Any Other Services Outages?
At this time, the City of Philadelphia is aware of the global IT outage and the impact on our city. Fortunately, 9-1-1- and pubic safety systems are functional. City workers and employees are still expected to report to work to assist as needed.
When Will The It Outage Be Resolved?
Friday’s IT outage is being reported as the biggest IT outage in history. At this time, there isn’t a specific timeline on resolving all of the service disruptions. However, city officials are confident they’re on track to get everything back to operational as soon as possible.