* CNBC…

Financial services and doctors’ offices were disrupted on Friday, while TV broadcasters went offline as businesses worldwide grappled with an ongoing major IT outage. Air travel has been particularly hit, with planes grounded, services delayed and airports issuing advice to passengers.

Earlier on Friday, cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike experienced a major disruption, the company told NBC, following an issue with its latest tech update.

The company’s CEO George Kurtz has since said that the company is “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” stressing that Mac and Linux hosts are not affected.

“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” he said on social media.

* WaPo…

The outage was linked to problems with Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing system, causing users to lose access to Office products and Windows systems more broadly. Widely used cybersecurity platform CrowdStrike pointed to a defect in an update it had delivered for Microsoft customers, while other operating systems including Mac were unaffected.

* Tribune…

Chicago’s two airports and Metra trains were hit with cancellations and delays amid a global technology outage that grounded flights, knocked banks and hospital systems offline and media outlets off air Friday around the world.

By 8:45 a.m. Friday, 104 flights had been cancelled at O’Hare International Airport and 244 were delayed, according to flight tracking firm FlightAware. At Midway, where Southwest Airlines is dominant, six flights were cancelled and 73 were delayed.

But that was a fraction of the 2,691 flights that had been cancelled globally around 7 a.m., according to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company.

At O’Hare, travelers were left staring at blank screens instead of the typical arrivals and departures displays. The Chicago Department of Aviation said it was working with federal agencies and airlines to restore operations, and urged travelers to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport.

* ABC Chicago…

American Airlines has lifted its ground stop. They released a statement saying, “Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”

Delta said in a statement, “Delta has resumed some flight departures after a vendor technology issue impacted several airlines and businesses around the world. That issue necessitated a pause in Delta’s global flight schedule this morning while it was addressed. Additional delays and cancelations are expected Friday. Delta has issued a travel waiver for all customers who have booked flights departing Friday, July 19. It allows customers to manage their own travel changes via delta.com and the Fly Delta app. The fare difference for customers will be waived when rebooked travel occurs on or before July 24, in the same cabin of service as originally booked. If travel is rebooked after July 24, any difference in fare between the original ticket and the new ticket will be collected at the time of booking.”

Metra said some trains were operating with delays as a result of the Microsoft outage.

CTA, and the Illinois Department of Transportation said they were not impacted. Chicago police said they have intermittent computer issues, but there is no impact for 911 and dispatcher service.

* Some of the state’s driver facilities are impacted…

⚠ NOTICE: Global outage of Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage impacting DMVs.

Please call 800-252-8980 before you visit our DMVs as global outage may impact operating hours or services (including road tests).

To access our online services any time, visit: https://t.co/ej5VdMEXab pic.twitter.com/gpjouYWbBJ

— Secretary Alexi Giannoulias (@ILSecOfState) July 19, 2024

…Adding… An update from SOS Giannoulias…

* The RTA is also having issues…

Unfortunately, the RTA’s Travel Information Center was impacted by the CrowdStrike global IT issue, causing long wait times for our callers. We do not have an estimate of when this will resolve, but are working quickly to find work-arounds.

— RTA Chicago (@RTA_Chicago) July 19, 2024

The Illinois Treasurer’s office started using CrowdStrike in 2022, I’ve reached out to see if they’re having any problems. I’ll update if they respond.

… Adding… The Treasurer’s office got back to me…

All constituent and banking information is safe and secure.

The Illinois State Treasurer’s Office (ISTO) employs several layers of cybersecurity.

CrowdStrike is one of several vendors engaged as part of our cybersecurity defenses.

ISTO is fully operational. No personal, programmatic, or financial data was compromised or affected.

No financial – banking and consumer – transactions were impacted.

ISTO programs are intact and were unaffected.

The icash.illinoistreasurer.gov/, www.BrightStart.com, and all publicly facing websites are fully operational.

State agencies were unable to communicate with the ISTO for three minutes at approximately 6:30 a.m., as the ISTO staff remedied the CrowdStrike issue before the state business day began.

Some ISTO employee laptops were affected by the unscheduled Microsoft update pushed out by CrowdStrike.