A security software meltdown disrupted St. Louis-area services early Friday.
Thousands of Microsoft Windows users reported being suddenly knocked offline, and the culprit appeared to be cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, whose routine software update malfunctioned overnight. Customers using Mac and Linux operating systems were not affected, according to CrowdStrike.
George Kurtz, the company’s CEO, wrote on social media early Friday that the issue was identified and a fix deployed. A timeline for CrowdStrike-related systems to return to normal was not provided.
“This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” Kurtz wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding, “We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.”
While server-related outages are common, the scale of the CrowdStrike disruption was astonishing to many tech observers.
“This IT outage is a stark reminder of how dependent we are on technology and many other things that happen behind the scenes that most of us are unaware of,” said Louisville-based tech executive Adam Robinson on X. “Modern society and the many comforts we enjoy is a fragile thing.”
Here is how local businesses, services and agencies are affected:
Airports, government agencies and utilities
Lambert International Airport was brought to a halt after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all outgoing flights be grounded because of the outage, impacting several airline carriers.
A handful of music directors and students from the internationally renowned School of Rock sat inside the Lambert Airport on Friday afternoon as they waited for nearly 30 students to fly in for a scheduled performance Monday at the Old Rock House in St. Louis.
Members of the group stood inside the airport clad in identical School of Rock T-shirts while they waited for the students to arrive from all over the country, after many of the flights were delayed by the CrowdStrike malfunction.
Amanda Wisniewski, general manager at the School of Rock in Austin, Texas, said her Southwest flight was originally scheduled for 5 a.m. Friday but was delayed by about 20 minutes. While Southwest wasn't directly impacted by the CrowdStrike issues, her flight was delayed anyway.
"They didn't know if other flights had been grounded and they weren't getting confirmation from [flight officials] through their systems, they didn't know if it was safe to take off," she said. "We didn't know who was in the air and when."
Wisniewski said Friday's software issues have made coordinating with students and their families difficult.
"Some of them are going to be late, some of them have been canceled, and they're trying to get other flights that they can do later in the day," she said. "Other students are even possibly coming in at 10:30 at night. Some of them don't even know if they're going to be able to get here today."
In addition to the delays the School of Rock experienced, reports detailed the Stanley Cup was stuck in St. Louis this morning because of the software malfunction. The Florida Panthers' Kyle Okposo was scheduled to take the cup to the Pagel Activity Center in Minnesota, but the event was postponed.
Will Becker, a spokesman for Lambert, said things were getting back to normal just before 11:30 a.m.
"Everybody seems to be back to operations," he said. "There's still going to be some flights that are impacted or delayed the rest of the day, because it's going to take a while for the rest of the system to catch up. We've been telling everybody just check with your airline and check your flight status."
As of roughly 2 p.m., 24 flights have been canceled and 102 have been delayed in St. Louis, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. A spokesperson for the City of St. Louis said no other city-related functions were impacted by the technical malfunction.
Spire and Ameren did not report any issues related to the outage.
Health systems
Officials at Mercy hospital in the region said patient care was not affected by the outage, but BJC, St. Luke's Hospital and SSM Health reported some technical issues — including an outage at SSM that disabled incoming phone calls. In addition, SSM's impacted hospitals postponed a limited number of procedures.
But the outage wreaked havoc at Affinia Health, which operates 14 community health centers in the region. The glitch downed the system’s electronic health records software, said Affinia President Kendra Holmes.
“The electronic health record is the main source for storing all patient information, diagnosis, demographics,” she said. “I would be very surprised if it was fully up by today. I think this is something that's going to last well into the weekend.”
Health systems rely on computer software to operate phones, imaging and electronic patient records, Holmes said. Clinics and hospitals are affected differently based on the software vendors they use for those tasks.
Since Friday is a popular day for in-clinic appointments, she estimates between 300 and 400 patients are affected. Providers are going back to basics, using paper charts for patients that don’t need imaging, which Holmes said is an “arduous process.”
“I think health care is tremendously vulnerable,” she said. “That's why it's really important for when you do have a situation like this to follow procedures to ensure the safety of patient information.”
Cultural institutions
The Missouri Botanical Garden is experiencing issues with its online ticket sales program, but visitors can still purchase tickets on-site.
The St. Louis Art Museum reported technical issues Friday morning and delayed opening until noon.
Education
The Edwardsville School District announced Friday morning that families are having issues registering their children for the upcoming school year. Registration for guaranteed transportation and class assignments have been extended through the end of the weekend, with the expectation the software the district uses is restored.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville technology staff are working to restore access to "some" university-managed classroom, faculty and staff computers after the software malfunction. A university spokeswoman said impact on classes has been minimal.
The University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis University and Washington University have all reported they were not affected.
St. Louis Public Radio's Kate Grumke, Andrea Henderson, Jeremy Goodwin, Miya Norfleet and Eric Schmid and NPR’s Bobby Allyn and Brian Mann contributed to this report.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
