CINCINNATI — A global technology outage grounded flights, knocked banks offline and media outlets off air on Friday after a faulty software update disrupted companies and services around the world and highlighted their dependence on just a handful of providers.
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 said a fix was on the way.
Many industries in the Tri-State have been unable to provide goods or services as a result of the outage.
At WCPO, the outage impacted our ability to air Good Morning Tri-State on Friday morning, but the issue was fully resolved in time for the noon broadcast.
Retail industries were heavily impacted, as point-of-sale systems across the region were unable to conduct transactions; WCPO's John Matarese found that many gas stations throughout the Greater Cincinnati region were unable to sell gasoline, despite tanks being full.
Some Kroger locations were unable to process digital coupons loaded from its app to a Kroger Plus card. Employees told customers they'd need to call 1.800.KROGERS at a later date to receive a refund for the coupon value. At the Newport Kroger, though, customers were still able to use digital coupons, though some systems were running slowly; a customer told us the gas pump took 20 seconds to fill $.04 worth of gas.
No gas at many gas stations this morning…since cash registers are down. Tanks are full but you can’t get any! @wcpo #outage #microsoft #Speedway #gas pic.twitter.com/El1DhYe3c8
— John Matarese (@JohnMatarese) July 19, 2024
Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicle offices were closed Friday; the Main Street location WCPO visited was closed, with a sign posted on its door that said the office was closed due to the global outage. The Ohio Department of Administrative Services also said other state IT services weer impacted, but the department was working to solve the issue.
Calls to Independence, Burlington and Covington DMV locations went unanswered.
The Hamilton County Clerk of Courts offices were also impacted by the outage. A sign posted on the Clerk of Court's door said because of the outage, all title computers are down. This means the office cannot issue titles — but the sign said the office can still issue passports.
Because of the issues, the three clerk of courts' Auto Title and Passport Division offices closed at 2 p.m. and will remain closed for the rest of the day.
Due to continued outages, the three Hamilton County Clerk of Courts' Auto Title & Passport Division offices are closed for the remainder of today (July 19, 2024) as of 2PM.All other services for the Clerk's Office remain open and unaffected. https://t.co/uqIFUnHvyx
— Pavan V. Parikh, Hamilton County Clerk of Courts (@HamCoClerk) July 19, 2024
Travelers at CVG have struggled as flights were canceled and delayed throughout the morning. Allegiant Airlines announced it had canceled all flights scheduled to take off before noon as the airline worked through the tech issue. The outage has not just impacted actual flight operations, it also impacted the systems that tell you whether your flight is on time.
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"Over the course of the next day, passengers should check with their carrier on flight status before coming to the airport," reads a Friday morning statement from CVG.
CVG Spokesperson Mindy Kershner said that travelers should check their flight status before heading to the airport.
While Metro said the outage did not impact local bus routes Friday morning, it did impact Metro's transit app. Metro said the scheduled arrival time is displayed instead of the real-time arrival time.
The University of Cincinnati Medical Center's services are not disrupted due to the outage and "operations are continuing as normal," the Director of Media Relations for UC Medical Center Heather Smith said.
However, Cincinnati Children's Hospital has been impacted. The hospital said delays are likely Friday, and early morning non-surgical appointments were rescheduled. Still, surgery patients and radiology appointments are still happening as scheduled, the hospital said.
At 3:05 p.m. Cincinnati Children's issued the following statement:
"Cincinnati Children’s has restored patient care operations with some minor exceptions, which we are actively addressing. We expect those issues to be resolved soon. Cincinnati Children's will contact families whose appointments were canceled so they can be rescheduled."
The outage also temporarily disrupted 911 services for Butler County and Middletown but service has been restored.
