CrowdStrike Reports Global Outage, Affecting Hospitals, Businesses Across the World

CrowdStrike, a major cybersecurity firm, reported a global outage early this morning has disrupted or halted operations at hospitals, banks, and other businesses, according to multiple reports and a news release from CrowdStrike.^1-4

Image credit: greenbutterfly | stock.adobe.com

The widespread outage has had a major impact on hospital operations and emergency services across the world. Some states, including Alaska, New Hampshire, and Ohio had 911 phone lines that were down.^1,6

Hospitals in Germany, Israel, and elsewhere canceled elective surgeries.^2,7 In the United Kingdom, doctors had difficulty accessing patient information such as blood tests, scans, and their medication history. Similar issues were experienced in Northern Ireland, with treatment providers unable to access radiotherapy services and patient bookings.^3,5

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” the company said in a news release this morning.⁴

The company said that “the issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed,” and that they would continue to provide updates on their website and support portal.⁴

George Kurtz, CEO and president of CrowdStrike, told the TODAY show this morning that he apologized for the impacts the outage has caused, and cautioned that “it could be some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover,” although the issue has been fixed on CrowdStrike’s end.²

Airlines were affected globally, with hundreds of flights from United Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Airlines being grounded and even more being delayed or cancelled due to the outage. Media outlets, banks, and other businesses were also impacted, reporting outages in service worldwide.^1-3

Cybersecurity disruptions pose a great risk to pharmacists and clinicians, as information technology systems are increasingly relied on for storing important patient medical and financial information. Outages such as these emphasize the necessity for pharmacists to implement procedures and protocols that can serve as a backup in the case of emergencies.⁸

“It is not reasonable to believe that IT professionals are solely responsible for safeguarding IT systems,” Shawn Bookwalter, PharmD, MSHI, MS, BCPS told Pharmacy Times. “The entire health care team should implement and maintain practices that support safeguarding data.”⁸

References

1. Allyn B, Mann B. Widespread technology outage disrupts flights and banking around the world. NPR. Updated July 19, 2024. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.npr.org/2024/07/19/g-s1-12222/microsoft-outage-banks-airlines-broadcasters

2. Smith P. Mass IT outage hits airports, businesses and broadcasters around the world. NBC News. Updated July 19, 2024. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mass-cyber-outage-airports-businesses-broadcasters-crowdstrike-rcna162664

3. Lee D, Walsh A (editors). Travel, banking and businesses hit after software bug causes worldwide IT chaos. BBC News. Updated July 19, 2024. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cnk4jdwp49et

4. CrowdStrike. Statement on windows sensor update. Published July 19, 2024. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/statement-on-windows-sensor-update/

5. Furlong A. Hospitals from New York to London, Paris struggle in tech outage. Bloomberg. Updated July 19, 2024. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-19/global-it-outage-is-hitting-doctor-appointments-across-the-uk?embedded-checkout=true

6. Papadopoulos M. New Hampshire’s 911 system fully restored after widespread technology outage. Yahoo! News, Boston 25 News. Published July 19, 2024. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.yahoo.com/news/hampshire-911-system-fully-restored-125423381.html

7. Reuters. Two German hospitals cancel elective operations citing global IT outage. Updated July 19, 2024. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/two-german-hospitals-cancel-elective-operations-citing-global-it-outage-2024-07-19/

8. Bookwalter S. Prescription for protection: cybersecurity measures for health care professionals. Pharmacy Times. Published July 18, 2024. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/prescription-for-protection-cybersecurity-measures-for-health-care-professionals