Canadian flights, hospitals, border disrupted due to global technology outage – PembinaValleyOnline.com

A global technology outage caused flight cancellations, disruptions at hospitals and traffic jams at border crossings in Canada on Friday, as reported problems continued hours after problems with Microsoft services were said to have been fixed.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the suspected reason for the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue affected Microsoft 365 apps and services, and the escalating disruptions continued after the tech company said it would gradually fix it.

Both Toronto Pearson International Airport and Montreal-Trudeau International Airport said the outage could lead to flight delays and cancellations.

Porter Airlines said it was canceling its flights until 12 p.m. ET due to the outage.

Meanwhile, Air Canada said there is no major impact on its operations, adding that it is closely monitoring the situation.

University Health Network, one of Canada’s largest hospital networks, said some of its systems were affected by the outage. A post on social media said clinical activities would continue as planned, but some patients could experience delays.

Windsor police reported long delays at both the Canada-U.S. border crossings at the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador notified its “users of its digital platforms” of possible service interruptions. The provincial health authority, NL Health Services, said its IT services were also affected, including the main information system used to manage patient care and financial information.

Some companies report that their operations were not affected by the technical failure.

Rogers Communications Inc. says there was no impact on its telephone and Internet networks or the media companies it owns. Air Canada says there is no major impact to its operations, but the airline is closely monitoring the situation.

Microsoft 365 published on the social media platform

CrowdStrike said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press that the company is “actively working with customers impacted by a bug identified in a single content update for Windows hosts.”