UK, hospitals, Kentucky airports, TV seeing disruptions from global technology outage
Several major operations in Lexington, including the University of Kentucky, Blue Grass Airport, local hospitals and a city service, reported technological disruptions due to a worldwide outage several businesses Friday.
CrowdStrike, a global cybersecurity firm, first started reporting issues around 4:46 a.m., according to downdetector.com. The outage impacted airports, hospitals, banks, media outlets, companies and services around the world dependent on CrowdStrike’s software.
UK said its UK HealthCare facilities experienced disruptions due to the outage, and “some elective procedures were postponed out of an abundance of caution.”
By late Friday afternoon, the university said most of its clinical operations had returned to normal, and patient appointments and procedures that had been canceled were being rescheduled.
The university said “all critical functions of the hospitals and clinics continued to operate all day.”
UK HealthCare operations were expected to be fully restored over the weekend.
“The community effort to resolve this problem here at UK HealthCare has been absolutely outstanding,” Dr. Kevin Hatton, acting chief medical officer for UK’s Albert B. Chandler Hospital, said in an update Friday evening. “Staff from across the university and health system have been working tirelessly since early this morning, systematically restoring functionality across the medical campus. Their work – and the efforts from our clinical staff to continue patient care during the disruptions – should be commended.”
The academic side of the UK campus suffered minimal impact from the incident, UK said in its news release.
UK systems impacted by the outage were Microsoft Windows desktops and servers and myUK, an online portal for employees, managers and business officers.
.@ITS_UKY continues to restore operations to systems across the University of Kentucky, including @UK_HealthCare, experiencing issues due to the global CrowdStrike outage.https://t.co/GN6qezA0mw
— University of Kentucky (@universityofky) July 19, 2024
The University of Kentucky, including @UK_HealthCare hospitals and clinics, is experiencing some disruptions due to issues with the cybersecurity platform Crowdstrike. The issue is impacting businesses and systems worldwide. Teams throughout the academic health system are…
— University of Kentucky (@universityofky) July 19, 2024
Baptist Health experiencing technical issues
Baptist Health in Lexington reported disruptions as a result of Friday’s outage. The disruption is impacting the hospital network’s ability to sustain normal operations, which resulted in the postponement of some procedures.
“Our number one priority is ensuring our patients continue to receive the highest-level of care as this incident is investigated and resolved,” Baptist Health said in a statement.
“We understand this incident is an inconvenience and appreciate everyone’s patience and cooperation during this time,” Baptist Health said.
LEXserv online portal impacted by outage
The online billing portal for LEXserv was unable to process online payments for some customers for several hours on Friday as a result of the CrowdStrike outage. The city said people who weren’t able to pay a bill online should call 859-280-8047 or visit 218 E. Main Street to pay their bill.
As of 2:30 p.m. Friday, all city services are operating normally, according to the city.
Due to the worldwide tech outage, LEXserv is currently unable to process online payments for some customers. If you are unable to pay your bill online, pay by calling 859-280-8047 or in person at 218 E. Main St., until 5 p.m. All other city services are operating normally.
— City of Lexington Ky (@LexingtonKyGov) July 19, 2024
Lexington flight delays, cancellations because of global internet outage
Multiple Delta Airlines flights at Blue Grass Airport were delayed by at least an hour Friday morning, according to the airport’s flight status board. One Delta flight to Atlanta scheduled to take off at 10:34 a.m. has been canceled.
As of 3 p.m. there were five flights delayed — two Delta and three American Airlines flights — at Blue Grass Airport, according to the airport’s flight status board. One Delta flight heading to Atlanta was delayed over three hours.
All flights scheduled to take off after 6 p.m. are still showing an on-time departure, according to the airport’s flight status board.
Lauren Simmerman, Community Relations Manager at the airport, said the Federal Aviation Administration instituted a global ground stop on all Delta, American and United flights, which impacted operations at Blue Grass Airport. Simmerman added the ground stop for American and Delta flights has been lifted and flights are departing from the airport.
Several flights out of Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport were delayed and a few more were canceled Friday morning, according to the airport’s flight status board. More flights out of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport were delayed as well.
Lexington TV stations off the air
Local TV stations were also affected by the global outage. WLEX-18 originally said its morning news broadcast would not air but later clarified its morning news broadcast did air at 6 a.m.
“We appreciate your patience as we worked through the issue,” the TV station said in a Facebook post.
UPDATE: LIVE AT 6 A.M. LEX 18 News at Sunrise will air this morning starting at 6 a.m., following a global IT outage took us offline. We appreciate your patience as we worked through the issue!
Posted by LEX 18 on Friday, July 19, 2024
Was internet outage a cyberattack?
George Kurtz, President and CEO of CrowdStrike, said on X, said the outage is not a security incident or cyberattack and the issue has been identified. The cybersecurity firm is working with customers impacted by the outage and a fix has been deployed.
“We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website,” Kurtz said on X. “We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”
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 issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
According to the Associated Press, DownDectector, tracks user-reported disruptions to internet services.
Herald-Leader staff writer Karla Ward contributed to this report.