Live coverage: Maryland grapples with CrowdStrike outages
The outage shut down courts for the day and scrambled flights, but did not appear to hit state or local agencies hard. Illustration by fotomek/stock.adobe.com.
State and local officials in Maryland were responding Friday, like the rest of the nation, to broadbased network problems that developed overnight during a routine update of CrowdStrike software.
The company said the problems were caused by a defect found in a content update for Windows – Mac and Linux systems were not affected – and it assured customers that the outage was not the result of a security breach or a cyberattack.
The issue still hobbled airline travel across the country and is affecting some government and private business operations.
State courts shut down for the day, but no other parts of state or local government appeared to be dealing with major problems as a result of the outage. Maryland Matters has been following the story as it develops.
4:07 pm, Friday, July 19
State makes progress toward restoring services, some still down
By Bryan P. Sears
Some departments continue to experience issues related to the CrowdStrike software update, but agencies have made “significant system restoration progress,” Gov. Wes Moore (D) said in an afternoon update to his earlier statement.
Contractors and health care providers continue to experience problems using Maryland Health Department systems, and Moore said some department-operated facilities, including the Division of Vital Records, were affected. Those problems also affect local vital records offices.
The statement also said the department continues to monitor outages at major hospital systems. Moore said the Department of Information Technology is working with affected agencies on work-arounds.
“We are grateful for the strong and ongoing partnership of county and local governments, critical private and nonprofit operations, and all key stakeholders affected by this global incident. And we appreciate the cooperation and patience of Marylanders as we work together to fully address outages that remain unresolved,” Moore’s statement said. Read his full updated statement here.
3:40 p.m., Friday, July 19
UMMS says full recovery will likely take days
By Danielle J. Brown
The University of Maryland Medical System is beginning to transition to normal operations. But that could take a few days, UMMS communication staffer Karen Warmkessel said in an email.
“UMMS was impacted by the global CrowdStrike cyber incident across multiple hospital sites and other locations, requiring member organizations to implement what are known as downtime procedures. These are commonly used alternative processes for recordkeeping and operations that allow us to safely care for patients during any kind of IT disruption,” she said.
“At this time, all UMMS member organizations have started to transition away from downtime procedures to normal operation as we recover from this incident. We anticipate that full recovery will take a few days, but we remain open to care for patient needs at this time.”
3:25 pm, Friday, July 19
Baltimore County officials ask for patience
By Bryan P. Sears
Baltimore County officials continue a full review of each computer system following the outage. Sean Narron, a county spokesperson, said the county opened its Emergency Operations Center around 7:30 a.m. Friday.
“We’re continuing to work and identify problems, 911, emergency operations, core county services, all remain operational,” said Naron. “We are testing each system one by one to identify any systems that may have continued outages. For example, if we work with a vendor, that vendor might have a service and that service is impacted.
“We’re trying to identify those one at a time, and we’ll be continuing to address these issues. We’re asking for patience and encouraging folks to be patient as we work through to identify them in triage,” he said.
3:08 pm, Friday, July 19
Hauling permit system service temporarily affected
By Bryan P. Sears
The outage left many state transportation systems untouched, but it did affect at least one system within the State Highway Administration: After being offline for much of the mornig, the Maryland One hauling permit system was brought back online just before noon Friday.
The system allows for the electronic filing of permit requests to haul oversized and overweight vehicles on state-maintained roads and in Baltimore City. Customers enter route and other information into the system, which then calculates the safest route, according to a department spokesperson.
2:39 p.m. Friday, July 19
By Danielle J. Brown
Maryland courts to resume operations Monday
Bradley Tanner, public information officer with the state’s court system, said in an email that the “Maryland Judiciary has restored all major systems and is presently working on individual desktops.”
“We anticipate all facilities will reopen on Monday, July 22,” he wrote.
2:33 pm, Friday, July 19
Howard County restores ‘critical systems’
By Bryan P. Sears
Howard County officials scrambled to restore 911, financial and other systems brought down by the CrowdStrike update.
In a statement, Howard County Chief Administrative Officer Brandee Ganze said systems in the county were “immediately affected” after the cybersecurity company pushed the update just before 1 a.m.
“Our Department of Technology and Communication Services worked to immediately restore critical systems first, including our 911 operations center, financial systems, and all other high priority systems,” Ganz said in the statement. “We have secured our internal systems and will continue to evaluate for any potential threats to our environment.”
Ganz said technicians continue to “assist employees that may have encountered system disruptions as a result of this outage.”
2:01 p.m. Friday July 19
Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) experiencing “minimal impact” from outage
By Danielle J. Brown
John Hopkins Medicine said in a news release that its facilities are “open and providing patient care.”
“JHM is aware of the Microsoft and CrowdStrike technology outage and is currently experiencing minimal impact to our normal IT functions,” the statement says.
“JHM has emergency preparedness protocols, including downtime procedures, in place that ensure the health system is able to maintain continuity in our operations and ability to continue to provide safe, high quality care in the event of an outage, like this,” it says.
2:00 pm, Friday, July 19
Montgomery County government says it is not affected
By Bryan P. Sears
Montgomery County government operations appear largely unaffected by the CrowdsStrike outage, according to a county spokesperson.
In an email, Montgomery County officials said “the county does not utilize CrowdStrike software, and therefore, most County IT systems are unaffected by this issue. However, third-party software solutions that use CrowdStrike may be impacted.”
1:42 p.m. Friday, July 19
Board of Nursing website now working
By Danielle J. Brown
The Board of Nursing comes back online, according to David McCallister with the state health department.
1:40 p.m., Friday, July 19
CrowdStrike continues to work on a fix
By Bryan Sears
In a statement, CrowdStrike said it continues to work on what it described as “a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”
That update has caused some Windows users to experience the so-called “blue screen of death” freeze. Not all Windows users are affected. Mac and Linux systems were also not affected.
The company issued an update and a series of suggested workaround steps for systems that continue to experience outages.
1:07 p.m. Friday, July 19
Maryland Health Department, related entities have “varying degrees” of IT issues
By Danielle J. Brown
The Maryland Department of Health, providers and contractors are “currently experiencing varying degrees of technical issues related to the CrowdStrike platform issue,” department spokesperson David McCallister said in a Friday statement.
“Outages are impacting MDH-operated facilities, including the Maryland Board of Nursing, and our Vital Records department, including local vital records offices. Internet connectivity is not currently available at many of our buildings; however, locations are slowly coming back online,” he said.
“We are working rapidly to assess the situation, address the systems issues, and to work with our healthcare partners to help address any statewide issues they may be experiencing,” he said.
12:24 a.m. Friday, July 19
MedStar Health reports it has been largely unaffected
By Danielle J. Brown
MedStar Health does not use CrowdStrike services and has “fortunately” not been affected by the outage, according to Marianne Worley, vice president of public relations and communications for MedStar Health.
11:52 a.m. Friday, July 19
Maryland Hospital Association: Some hospitals are ‘seeing some disruptions’
By Danielle J. Brown
The association overseeing Maryland’s hospitals reported that “a number of Maryland hospitals are still seeing some disruptions due to the Microsoft outage.”
“Hospitals across the state are open and operational, however some are cancelling elective procedures,” according to the Maryland Hospital Association statement.
“Issues include problems with access to electronic health records, transcription services, prescription and other cloud-hosted software systems. Many business systems, such as budgeting and care coordination, are also affected,” the statement said.
11:20 a.m., Friday, July 19
Moore says state working with county, local governments
By Bryan Sears
Gov. Wes Moore (D) said the state was working with “county and local governments, critical private and nonprofit operations, and all key stakeholders affected by this outage to minimize any disruptions to the Marylanders affected by this global event.”
His statement did not outline what state agencies had been affected. He said a full review is underway.
“And after conducting a full review of all state systems, I am confident we know the issues that need our attention, and we will work continually until all systems are back to normal operations,” the statement said.
The outage disrupted air travel nationwide, and Moore said that while state systems at Baltimore/Washington International Airport “are all working as intended … specific airlines may have been affected by the incident and travelers should check with individual airlines for updates on any delays or cancellations.”
Moore added that 911 systems “have remained resilient.” The governor’s complete statement can be found here.
11:20 A.M. Friday, July 19
University of Maryland Medical System ‘determining the impacts’ of outage
By Danielle J. Brown
Tyler Waldman, media coordinator for the University of Maryland Medical System, said in a written statement that “UMMS is in the process of determining the impacts of the global cyber incident across our organization.”
“We can confirm that each of our member organizations have implemented downtime procedures to ensure orderly operations and patient safety,” he said in the written statement.
10:16 a.m., Friday, July 19
Air travelers should expect delays, state warns
By Bryan Sears
The CrowdSource outage is causing widespread flight delays, and state transportation officials urge anyone who is flying today to confirm their travel schedule with their respective airlines.
“The issue is impacting several airlines that operate at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Travelers are asked to confirm flight status with their airline prior to arriving at the airport, and to be patient and expect delays,” according to a statement from the Maryland Department of Transportation.
David Broughton, a Transportation spokesperson, said “a couple of airlines” at BWI are reporting issues. Southwest Airlines, the major carrier at the airport, was not. Broughton said state transportation officials are warning that some “might experience longer than normal wait times.”
The department said police and fire personnel were “at the terminal, in case of any passenger emergencies. Airport staff is distributing water for passengers in line.”
The outage had a minor impact on the state’s toll facilities, but the department said, “Maryland EZPass users may experience longer than normal wait and processing times for toll transactions.”
9:51 a.m. Friday, July 19
Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services System (MIEMSS) back online
By Danielle J. Brown
MIEMSS reports that its eMEDS website has been restored.
“Please be aware that several hospitals are still recovering from this nationwide outage as systems come back online. Current findings indicate that this is not being classified as a cyber or security attack. Our eMEDS data remains secure and uncompromised,” according to a MIEMSS email update.
9:25 a.m., Friday, July 19
Lottery operations largely unaffected by outage
By Bryan Sears
Maryland Lottery officials said they experienced only minor disruptions because of the outage. Seth Elkin, a spokesperson for the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, credited the “minimal disruption” to the daily schedule that shuts some lottery systems down for several hours overnight.
“Our terminal system is shut down overnight from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. daily,” Elkin said. “It’s not possible to purchase draw game or Fast Play tickets during those hours, though scratch-off sales are possible, since those tickets are preprinted rather than being generated by the terminal system.”
As of mid-morning, Elkin said the agency was not experiencing any other problems related to the CrowdStrike outage.
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