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Glitch from Texas-based company CrowdStrike affects tech systems in Bexar County and San Antonio

Delta, United and American Airlines grounded all flights Friday morning in response to the technology outage.
Michael Minasi
/
KUT News
Delta, United and American Airlines grounded all flights Friday morning in response to the technology outage.

A glitch within an Austin-based cybersecurity company's software update grounded flights, disrupted city and county operations and snarled technology systems around the world.

American, Delta and United grounded all of their flights Friday morning after the company, CrowdStrike, pushed out a software update to Microsoft Windows systems that contained a "defect," the company said in a statement.

"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts," the company said. "Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack."

Several American and Delta Airlines flights at San Antonio International Airport were delayed or canceled but by mid-morning, an airport spokesperson reported, "All airline service has resumed flights and operations at San Antonio International Airport are back on schedule. This morning, we experienced 5 delays and 5 cancellations due to the Microsoft/CloudStrike outage." Travelers can check their flight status at flysanantonio.com.

University Health reported that all of its "locations remain open and patients should know that all appointments are proceeding as scheduled." Its statement added: "We were affected by the worldwide tech outage, but nearly all University Health IT systems are back up and we expect them all to be back online shortly." CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health System told TPR it experienced no major issues related to the outages.

A tech meltdown left workers at airlines, banks and hospitals staring at the dreaded “blue screen of death” as their computers went inert in what is being described as a historic outage.

The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles also said it was affected by the outages. Many department systems and services were unavailable. Texas driver license offices across the state are closed until further notice.

The Bexar County Tax Assessor Collector's office said that because of this outage, it was unable to conduct motor vehicle transactions. Aside from that, a county spokesperson explained, "All of Bexar County systems are up and running there are no impacts."

Bus service in San Antonio was largely unaffected. A VIA spokesperson explained that technical staff became aware of the outage early Friday morning and immediately fixed any problems. Only three of the 96 daily bus routes had any impact on customers and departed later than normal. VIA also cautioned users of its app that it was addressing any issues due to the outage.

Also, the McNay Museum advised visitors that it could not process any online retail business because of the tech problems.

The outage also affected 911 call centers in some states, disrupted hospital and banking systems in multiple countries and knocked some television stations off the air in France and Australia, NPR reports.

Brian Kirkpatrick, Jackie Velez, Paul Flahive, Norma Martinez, Marian Navarro and KUT's Andy Jechow contributed to this report.

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