IT outage affecting people around the globe, including Winnipeg mayor

A global IT outage caused by a faulty Microsoft update is affecting people around the globe — including Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham.

Gillingham told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg Friday morning that he was stuck in New York City — temporarily — as a result of the outage.

The mayor was in the U.S. attending a leadership training conference with almost 40 other mayors from around the world, and so far hasn’t been able to leave the Big Apple.

“I was supposed to fly back home Wednesday night and our flights were cancelled due to weather — not able to fly until today,” Gillingham said.

“Now we’re just really watching to see if this IT outage is having any impact on our flight.

“We’re flying out of LaGuardia today…. We’re supposed to check with our airline and confirm that our flight is still a go before we head to the airport. So far the airline we’re flying with is looking like it’s on time.”

Although the outage involves a U.S. cybersecurity company, tech experts say it has nothing to do with a cyberattack, but rather a software update gone wrong.

“CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity, technology company based in the U.S.,” tech analyst Carmi Levy told 680 CJOB’s The Start.

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“They have a piece of software called Falcon sensor that is actually a part of Windows. An update to Falcon sensor went bad and it caused Windows computers running this software to constantly reboot — that’s the same as the blue screen of death.”

Levy said it’s the responsibility of a company like Microsoft to make sure all the various pieces of its software work together, and that better co-ordination is needed.

“Concerns have only grown today. When there’s an update to one of those pieces, (it’s Microsoft’s responsibility) to ensure that proper protocols are followed, and that appropriate testing before it goes out around the world is done.

“And that clearly didn’t happen here.”

The outage has caused a mess of delays and cancellations, affecting several airlines in the U.S., the U.K., Europe and India.

In a statement to Global News, the Winnipeg Airports Authority said the Richardson International Airport remains operational, but flight delays and cancellations are possible, and passengers should double-check with the airlines first.

Also affected by the outage: all Dynacare labs across Manitoba and Ontario are closed Friday.

In a statement, Dynacare said its labs can’t process or analyze any samples at this time and officials are trying to resolve the issue.

Shared Health says wait times for in-hospital lab testing may be longer due to the increased traffic from outpatients. In-hospital patient testing will continue to be prioritized but no one will be turned away as long as they have the proper paperwork.

0:39 Global tech outage affecting flights at Pearson airport

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