Friday morning, July 19th, 2024 saw a worldwide information technology (IT) outage affecting multiple businesses, including many organizations here in Great Falls. The cybersecurity company CrowdStrike indicated that it was a software malfunction rather than a cyberattack, but malicious actors were calling Microsoft users pretending to be CrowdStrike Support in order to obtain sensitive and private information. The IT issue was identified and the firm deployed a software fix to all Microsoft users. Several companies sent out warnings against answering phone or email questions from potential scammers. Organizations using Mac or Linux systems were not affected by this global issue.
The IT outage began early Friday morning in a series of software disruptions affecting banks, stock exchanges, hospitals, airlines, shipping industries, etc. with Great Falls businesses being no exception. United and Delta had to cancel over 1,000 flights at airports worldwide starting at 07:45 AM Friday morning, including Great Falls International Airport.
Benefis Health also saw the ramifications of the IT outage, but immediately initiated a disaster protocol and had their computer systems back up within less than a few hours. Some elective patient services were rescheduled in the meantime and warning bulletins were sent out. Benefis IT crews soon had the situation under control. Other organizations with business in Great Falls also attempted mitigation measures. For instance, FedEx initiated a response protocol sending out warning bulletins to their customers and stores in the area.
The response by the Great Falls businesses acted quickly, centering on the needs of the community and cybersecurity. Within hours, the situation was for the most part handled. In comparison, other cities saw longer delays and more disruptions. For instance, Mass General Hospital canceled all their elective surgeries and treatments. The Berlin airport in Germany suffered longer delays as well as the Gatwick airport in the United Kingdom. So kudos to all the Great Falls IT for getting our community back up and running during these outages.
Author: Staff
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