Today is Saturday, July 20, 2024. Yesterday a global software outage brought many computer systems across business, health care, technology, and government sectors to a screeching halt in under 12 hours. This unprecedented event is detailed in a CNN article by Eva Rothenberg in which she provides details about this turbulent event.

As of late Thursday night and early Friday, 911 centers and transportation services were disrupted. During this time, several states, including Alaska and Arizona, experienced 911 service outages. Some hospitals also begin experiencing technology issues overnight, according to nurses on shift.

Between 2 and 3 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announces that all Delta and American Airlines flights are grounded. Several minutes later, the FAA says flights from United and Allegiant Airlines have been grounded regardless of their destination.

Another airline, Spirit Airlines, says its flight reservation system has also been affected by the outage.

A few hours later, between 5 and 6 a.m., public transit systems in the Northeast begin announcing that they have been impacted. Washington, D.C., public transportation services – including trains and buses – begin experiencing delays, according to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

Here in New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has said customer information systems have gone temporarily offline, but train and bus services remain unaffected. Hey, New York rocks!

At 5:30 a.m., U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike informs customers that it was “aware of reports of crashes” of its software on Microsoft Windows operating systems, according to a company advisory viewed by CNN. CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software – used by numerous Fortune 500 companies – detects and blocks hacking threats.

Between 6 and 7 a.m., the White House investigates and global banks report issues. A White House National Security Council spokesperson tells CNN they are “aware of the incident and are looking into the issue and impacts.” A White House source familiar with the matter tells CNN there are no indications at this time of malicious activity, though the administration is still investigating.

Global banks start reporting some service disruptions, including Australia’s Commonwealth Bank, South Africa’s Capitec, and the Bank of Israel. Australian lenders ANZ and Westpac were also impacted, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks cyber outages. Downdetector has also reported issues for New Zealand’s ASB Bank.

Between 8 and 9 a.m., some flights resume, but airports brace for a busy day. Delta Air Lines resumes some flight departures and issues travel waivers to affected customers.

Between 9 a.m. and noon, federal agencies become involved and President Joe Biden is briefed. Now Biden is briefed on the CrowdStrike outage and his team is in touch with CrowdStrike and impacted entities, says a White House official. This official said the president’s team is also engaged with agencies “to get sector-by-sector updates throughout the day and is standing by to provide assistance as needed.”

Mail carriers UPS and FedEx tell CNN they were also impacted by the outage. UPS says its airline is operational and its drivers are on the roads, but there may be some service delays.

Some hospitals have reported delays in services, while others have canceled some nonurgent surgeries and medical office visits. Several cancer centers, including Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, say they have paused certain procedures and scheduled appointments.

Around 4 p.m., New York Blood Center, a supplier of blood to approximately 200 hospitals in the Northeast United States, says it has put in place an emergency driving operation to distribute blood.

In a statement this morning, Microsoft estimates the outage affected 8.5 million Windows devices. That’s less than 1 percent of all Windows machines, according to Microsoft, but if you were one of those unfortunate computer users that was affected in this outage, this is not such a comforting fact.

As of noon today, at least 3,375 flights across the United States have been delayed and more than 1,200 canceled, according to data from flight tracker FlightAware. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the nation’s busiest airport, remains the most affected. Delta Air Lines has canceled more than 500 flights, while United Airlines has canceled almost 300, according to FlightAware.

Thank God my computer, which is an Apple Mac, was not affected at all, but I was upset by my receiving not one, but two letters from companies today, Rite Aid and Ticketmaster, telling me that I might have been the victim of a data security “incident,” as one letter explains it. Shit! I think it’s crazy to receive two of these letters on the same day, don’t you? The dates of these incidents occurred so long ago that I don’t understand why these letters were first sent out at this time. The Ticketmaster “incident” occurred around May 23; the Rite Aid “incident” transpired around June 17. This is now July 20.

Both letters mention using Credit Monitoring services at no cost to me in order to protect against fraud. But it’s these two companies that didn’t initially protect me and thousands of other unsuspecting customers from these goddamned data breaches that I’m angry with. Have you noticed that as we become much more dependent on technology, more of these breaches occur more and more often? It’s truly appalling. So now I don’t know what to do; I usually review my credit statements very carefully to see if there are no unauthorized charges, so I think I would have seen something by now. With Rite Aid, I know that I don’t usually pay with a credit card since I don’t buy too much all at once. However, if I’ve used Ticketmaster, I would have used a credit card to purchase tickets to some concert or event. I would be more fearful that my personal information might have been compromised through Ticketmaster’s data breach. So I will see what I will do to protect myself from identity theft.

Anyway, it’s late here.

Have a nice Sunday.

Stay safe and be well.