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Canada’s airports, hospitals begin to return to normal after global IT outage

Canada’s airports, hospitals begin to return to normal after global IT outage

MONTREAL — Airports, hospitals and police services across Canada gradually returned to normal operations Saturday, recovering from a global technology outage caused by a faulty update to Microsoft Windows computers.

MONTREAL — Airports, hospitals and police services across Canada gradually returned to normal operations Saturday, recovering from a global technology outage caused by a faulty update to Microsoft Windows computers.

As systems around the world increasingly come online, a security expert warned that Canadians can expect more disruptions in the future unless industry practices change.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said Friday’s outage, which was felt globally, was caused when the company installed a faulty update on computers running Microsoft Windows. The company said the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.

Microsoft published a statement on its official blog on Saturday revealing the extent of the impact to customers.

“We currently estimate that the CrowdStrike update impacted 8.5 million Windows devices, or less than 1 percent of all Windows machines,” wrote David Weston, a vice president at the company responsible for operating system security. “While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impact reflects the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services.”

In Canada, it was air travelers who felt the impact most. Porter Airlines passengers saw many of their flights canceled on Friday, and the vast majority of arrivals and departures between Canada and the U.S. at airports in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal were postponed or canceled.

Montreal’s Trudeau Airport issued a statement Saturday saying that “operations have returned to normal … but flights operated by affected airlines may still be subject to schedule changes.”

A spokesperson for Vancouver International Airport told The Canadian Press that the outage, which has since been resolved, is still disrupting flights across North America, including for airlines flying out of Vancouver Airport.

The outage also hit Canada’s health care sector, with hospital and healthcare workers in British Columbia having to switch to paper to manage everything from lab work to meal orders during the outage.

On Saturday, health care providers including Toronto’s University Health Network and the provincial health authority in Newfoundland and Labrador announced that normal operations had resumed.

“UHN is returning to normal operations following the global IT outage. We do not anticipate any additional appointment delays,” a message on the University Health Network website reads.

Meanwhile, Edmonton police say 911 lines have been restored after a major disruption to emergency communications.

According to cybersecurity expert Steve Waterhouse, the global outage should be a wake-up call for Canadian organizations and companies.

“It is of the utmost importance because it has paralyzed so many sectors of our economy and our society,” he said, warning that more potential outages are on the way, either from problems with another cybersecurity company such as CrowdStrike or from other types of software.

According to Waterhouse, the centralization of everything from data storage to email over the past few decades has created systemic vulnerabilities when something goes wrong.

“Organizations, both public and private, need to redo their homework to properly manage the risks of not having access to computing services that are centralized remotely,” he said, comparing a backup plan to keeping candles in the closet in case the power goes out.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2024.

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press