Canadians woke up Friday facing the first-hand effects of a global IT outage that disrupted multiple industries, including banks, health care, border crossings and airlines. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows — and that the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.
While a fix is in the works and systems are slowly coming back online, the impacts of the CrowdStrike outage will linger for days, experts say, as it affects Microsoft 365 apps and services.
“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” the tech giant behind the outage wrote in a statement.
“We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.”
After a full day of disruptions across Canada, here is a look at where things currently stand.
Airlines
For airlines, the outage predominantly impacted U.S.-based carriers such as United Airlines and American Airlines, resulting in numerous cancellations and delays. Porter Airlines, which operates flights across Canada and to some U.S. locations, had also been affected, as they initially cancelled or delayed all flights on Friday. However, the Toronto-based airline shared an update at 2:30 p.m. ET that they would be resuming operations.
All major airports across Canada continue to experience delays, and travellers are urged to check their flight status with their airline before heading to the airport.
Borders
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) reported a partial outage of its telephone reporting system, used primarily by small aircraft passengers and boaters, which has since been resolved. CBSA noted that no other systems are currently affected.
Earlier on Friday, Windsor police reported long delays at both Canada-U.S. border crossings at the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel. Current wait times at the Ambassador Bridge crossing and the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel currently stand at 30-40 minutes due to delays.
Health Care
British Columbia health authorities say the disruption affected its networks and computers across all systems. The five regional authorities all have notices on their websites, saying they have implemented contingency plans to ensure health-care services remain operational.
Toronto’s University Health Network says the outage is affecting some of its systems, but clinical activity at its hospitals is continuing as scheduled. However, it warns that some patients may experience delays.
Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) also said some of its operations were affected but that all of its hospitals “are safe and remain open” including Hamilton General Hospital. HHS said some non-urgent appointments and procedures may be delayed and that it would be contacting those people who are affected.
The outage also affected the availability of some health-care services in Newfoundland and Labrador, according to a statement from N.L. Health Services.
Health-care provider Dynacare shared an update saying that as of 1 p.m. PST, they would be opening their B.C. locations, but that their Quebec, Ontario and some Manitoba locations remain shuttered.
Banking
Banks in Canada were “reviewing the situation based on updates from their technology partners,” a spokeswoman for the Canadian Bankers Association said.
“Any current impacts on banking services would be temporary,” Maggie Cheung said in a statement.
TD Canada is the only major Canadian bank that shared a statement that their services were impacted by the global outage, as customers reported problems online, such as with direct deposits.