Circle K gas stations were cash only, including at the King Street and Interstate 65 location in Franklin, because of the CrowdStrike outage on Friday. Elissa Maudlin | Daily Journal
A technology outage has caused disruptions to companies and services around the world, including in Indiana and Johnson County, after a faulty software update on Friday.
Flights, banks and hospital systems have been disrupted, while media outlets have been knocked offline across the world as a result of the outage affecting Microsoft systems through a security vendor.
The trouble with the update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and affecting computers running Microsoft Windows was not a security incident or cyberattack, according to CrowdStrike, which apologized and said a fix was on the way. The cybersecurity firm said the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows.
“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. … Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers,” CEO George Kurtz said in a post on the social media platform X.
But hours after the problem was first detected, disruptions continued — and escalated.
Long lines formed at airports in the U.S., Europe and Asia as airlines lost access to check-in and booking services. This includes Indianapolis International Airport, with videos and photos on social media showing long lines early Friday morning.
The issue has caused some airlines to have a ground stop on flights, and the Federal Aviation Administation said it was “closely monitoring” the issue. American Airlines and Delta have resumed flights, and United is working to as well, the companies posted on social media.
As of 12:50 p.m. Friday, 56 delays and 32 cancellations were reported at Indianapolis International Airport, according to FlightAware, a global flight tracker. In a post on X, the airport said travelers who planned to depart from the airport should “check with their airline for updates on flight status before coming to the terminal.”
The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles has also been affected by the outage, which caused the agency to be unable to process transactions throughout the day Friday. At least one Indianapolis television station — WTHR — was affected by the outage, with anchors saying in a Facebook video that it impacted their morning newscasts.
The Social Security Administration closed all offices for the day, including offices in Columbus and Indianapolis, because of the outage. Their phone line, 800-772-1213, remained open, as did some online services, the agency said.
Across the county, Bargersville and Franklin reported some major impacts from the outage. Bargersville’s billing system was down, but they were working to restore connections, the town said in a Facebook post.
Some of Franklin’s systems were down for about an hour or so, but everything was up and running before noon, Mayor Steve Barnett said.
The city of Greenwood only reported having an issue with its timekeeping system for employees. But Mayor Mark Myers believed it was up and running again as of 10:35 a.m., he said.
There were also reports of Circle K gas stations across Central Indiana being only able to accept cash due to the outage. The Circle K at King Street and Interstate 65 in Franklin was among those affected, with signs informing customers they were cash only. An employee said it was because of the outage.
While there were reports of issues with 911 systems in some parts of Indiana because of the outage, Johnson County 911 was not affected. The only issue they reported having is difficulty accessing state systems, like the BMV, said Heath Brant, 911 executive director.
The Indiana State Police saw some effects, but their radio and 911 systems are fully functional. They can respond to emergencies, said Sgt. John Perrine, a spokesperson for the Indianapolis Post.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office was unaffected by the outage, Sheriff Duane Burgess said. Johnson Memorial Health also reported having no issues, said Dr. David Dunkle, president and CEO.
Elsewhere across the globe, news outlets in Australia — where telecommunications were severely affected — were pushed off air for hours. Hospitals and doctor’s offices had problems with their appointment systems, while banks in South Africa and New Zealand reported outages to their payment system or websites and apps.
DownDetector, which tracks user-reported disruptions to internet services, recorded that airlines, payment platforms and online shopping websites across the world were affected — although the disruption appeared piecemeal and was apparently related to whether the companies used Microsoft cloud-based services.
Microsoft 365 posted on X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the CrowdStrike outage and his team has been in touch with CrowdStrike and impacted entities, according to the White House. The administration is “standing by to provide assistance as needed,” the White House said.
This story will be updated.
Daily Journal reporter Elissa Maudlin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
