911 services across Alaska are back up and running after a software update from the popular cloud security provider CrowdStrike caused chaos and crashed computer systems around the world late Thursday night.
Alaska State Troopers reported late Thursday night that the outage had disrupted operations at “many” emergency and non-emergency call centers around the state. State troopers said 911 services across the state were back to normal as of about 6:45 a.m.
Across the country, the faulty software update disrupted health care providers, airlines and banks, among others.
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities said the issue resulted in cancellations of seven Delta and United flights at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. State officials said Alaska Airlines flights were not disrupted by the outage.
Flight tracking website FlightAware reported 42 delays at Ted Stevens as of 1:30 p.m. Friday.
“Multiple airlines systems continue to be affected late into the morning, there is no projected timeline for when they will be operational again,” DOT&PF said in a statement.
State officials said the issue had delayed three flights at Fairbanks International Airport.
The operator of Alaska’s largest hospital, Providence Health and Services, said in a statement posted to its website that its IT teams worked overnight to respond to the issue and restore functionality to a key electronic health records system. But the nonprofit Catholic hospital provider said other systems, including clinical applications and workstations, continued to feel the impact of the outage as of noon Alaska time Friday.
A spokesperson said Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage was experiencing “operational challenges” as a result of the software glitch but said care was continuing.
“While we have organized an incident command to urgently restore all systems at the Alaska Native Medical Center and campus-wide, our emergency services and specialty clinics remain open,” Shea Siegert of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium said in an emailed statement. “Patients needing healthcare can absolutely come to the hospital or clinic for care. We are prioritizing solutions in clinical areas, using downtime procedures as needed, and continue to provide the highest level of patient care possible.”
Southcentral Foundation, a tribal health care provider in Anchorage, said it was also affected by the outage.
“The outage impacted many SCF computers and systems across the organization, but we were able to respond quickly in order to limit the impact to those seeking services,” Southcentral Foundation President and CEO April Kyle said in a statement. “Currently, our ITS department has restored service to most of the impacted devices and services in clinical areas.”
Erin Hardin, a spokesperson for Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau, said the outage’s impact on their operations was limited, and that patients should not expect disruptions.
“Our daily operations are functioning normally,” she said. “We are learning of a few, I think, third party vendors that we do use that have been impacted, and so we’re learning about what some of those secondary impacts are. … That work is still underway, but our major operations are not affected.”
The outage also affected state courts, said Alaska Court System spokesperson Rebecca Koford, though the impacts were relatively minor.
“In some locations, things might have been a little slow to get started this morning, but no hearings were actually disrupted,” she said. “Everything was able to continue, but it might have required a little bit of extra patience today.”
State appeals court records were inaccessible online Friday morning but appeared to be functioning normally by midday. Koford said IT teams worked overnight to prevent wider impacts to court operations.
First National Bank Alaska said by email that its customers were not affected by the issue.
“Our internal Information Technology and Security teams, who monitor First National’s network 24/7, took immediate action to ensure all bank systems remained secure and operational, ensuring all customers experienced uninterrupted access to in-person and digital banking services,” said Senior Vice President Denise Brown Robinson.
CrowdStrike offered a workaround for the issue in a blog post on its website.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Eric Stone covers state government, tracking the Alaska Legislature, state policy and its impact on all Alaskans. Reach him at estone@alaskapublic.org.
