Westchester County was hit by the global computer disruption and the county’s Department of Information Technology sprang into action well before dawn Friday morning to begin taking corrective action. Numerous computer systems including almost 2,500 of the county’s 5,000 computers were affected along with computer servers when CrowdStrike sent out its faulty cybersecurity update. The county’s 911 Call Center was affected and call center personnel quickly switched to manual operation. The county clerk’s records system containing land and legal records was affected. Westchester County Airport was among the airports around the world that had flight delays attributed to the effects on airlines of the worldwide computer problems.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer, Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins, Operations Director Joan McDonald and IT Commissioner Marguerite Beirne gave a briefing at noontime at the county office building in White Plains on the county’s recovery efforts. They indicated that it will take a considerable length time to restore all systems.
Latimer explained that after CrowdStrike had caused the problem it sent out updated software to fix the failures. He said that the county’s information technology technicians were provided with instructions by CrowdStrike on how to load the new software and restore various computer systems, noting that it is a manual process and will take considerable time to accomplish since each computer must be individually restored.
CrowdStrike provides cybersecurity software to Microsoft Windows computer systems around the world. An update it sent out was faulty, causing widespread computer outages. The company said it came up with a fix and put out a new software update. It will take some time, however, for end users to use the update to restore their systems. Airlines, railroads, banks, retailers and offices were among the hardest hit. Some government computer systems, including emergency 911 call centers, were affected.
Sullivan County’s government said it was impacted by the outage. Sullivan County Legislature Chair Nadia Rajsz said, “Many services have been disrupted, so we encourage people to call ahead before visiting anycCounty office, even for a pre-arranged appointment. Our 911 and Sheriff’s Office are fully operational, and our entire Information Technology Services (ITS) Division is diligently working to bring all systems back online.”
According to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, “New Yorkers in all 62 counties are able to call 911 at this time. Non-emergency services are being impacted as well. Major disruptions have been reported at DMVs across the State of New York. And while the Port Authority isn’t impacted itself, the individual airlines are. So, everyone should certainly be checking flight information before they head to the airport. The MTA (is) fully operational, but certain tech features like countdown clocks and the MTA app are unavailable at this moment. This is an obviously incredibly disruptive event caused by a third party vendor. We’ll continue working around the clock to restore services as soon as possible, and we’ll continue to keep New Yorkers updated on our progress.”
The FAA said that all flights by American Airlines, United and Delta were grounded and other airlines were experiencing delays.
The inconveniences encountered by passengers using Westchester County Airport were mild in comparison with what was happening elsewhere in the nationwide airline system. The displays of arriving and departing flights and gate locations at LaGuardia Airport had blanked out, as they did at other airports. More than half of the flights in the U.S. had been canceled or were delayed as of mid-morning. In cities as far flung as Berlin, Bangkok and Hong Kong flight cancellations and delays were massive. For a time this morning, all departures at Bradley International Airport in Hartford were canceled.
New York state’s Chief Cyber Office Colin Ahern said, “We are working with our agencies, local governments, and the third party service provider to resolve any issues on impacted systems. Our priority is to ensure all 911 systems across New York are operational and able to address emergency response needs. The third party has identified a fix for the underlying issue and the New York State Office of Information Technology Services is actively working with other state agencies on a resolution. We do not yet have a timeline for full restoration. We recognize the impact this is having on services, not only across New York but also globally.”
New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles had computer issues and was unable to process some transactions.
The health care systems in Israel, Germany and Great Britain were affected by the loss of their computer systems.
The Federal Communications Commission said it was working closely with other agencies to try to determine the precise effects and extent of the service disruptions.
