OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A global outage Friday has had a wide-ranging impact in Oklahoma and on at least one Oklahoman stranded in a different state.
The problems stemmed from a software outage announced by Microsoft and Cyber Security company CrowdStrike Friday morning. CrowdStrike confirmed the outage was not the cause of a cyber attack, but a content defect.
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“Anyone that is using that software in their organization or on their computer would have experienced an outage on that device once Windows rebooted,” said Cory Carson, CEO of ITology.
Hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled at airports across the country, including at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. A spokesperson said as of Friday the airport was up and running again efficiently with just a few delays in the afternoon.
News 4 spoke with an Oklahoma radio host trapped in Las Vegas who said the experience there hasn’t been as smooth after his flight was canceled.
“This is insane,” said Travis Davidson in a clip he posted on social media showing mostly empty security lines at one of the nation’s busiest airports.
Davidson said his flight was canceled at the last minute, leaving him and four other people with him, stuck in Las Vegas. He said it’s not as luxurious of an extended getaway as it might sound to some.
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“Lucky you, you’re stranded in Vegas,” said Davidson of what the reaction has been like. “It’s 110 here and I’m not trying to spend seven or eight days here.”
Davidson said it’s also been difficult trying to find a rental car.
“All their rental cars are spoken for,” said Davidson. “I finally got one for Sunday. I think I’m picking it up at 6 a.m. and I’m dropping it off in Tulsa.”
Various industries across the state were impacted by the outage as well.
The Stillwater Police Department dealt with all of its phone lines being down, eventually rerouting them before operations returned to normal just before 10 a.m. Friday.
SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital shared the impact to its systems in a statement to News 4:
“SSM Health has been impacted by the global IT issue that occurred overnight. While we are continuing to provide exceptional patient care without disruption, we do have some phone systems down and are postponing a limited number of procedures. Our team is working quickly to resolve these issues and expect to have all operations fully restored today.”
SSM Health Spokesperson
Service Oklahoma also shared a statement with News 4 on the impact the outage had on the agency and its partners:
The worldwide CrowdStrike issue affecting IT systems is impacting driver license services in the state. There are currently intermittent issues, with many driver license services unavailable at Service Oklahoma and licensed operator locations at this time. Written and drive tests are still available at Service Oklahoma locations. Many driver license and motor vehicle services can be completed online at service.ok.gov.
Service Oklahoma Spokesperson
Carson said even though this incident wasn’t a cyber attack it should serve as a reminder for Oklahomans to protect themselves.
“Sometimes we can become complacent or we can choose to push off securing our credentials and our systems,” said Carson.
Carson said it’s important businesses start to consider consulting I.T. providers, but offered some personal cyber safety tips for everyone including:
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Use strong passwords.
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Use different passwords.
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Use a password manager.
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Use 2FA/MFA.
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