MIAMI — A widespread outage affecting Microsoft 365 applications disrupted operations for airlines, banks, health systems, television networks, and more worldwide on Friday. The culprit? A glitch tied to the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
The fallout from this outage was extensive, leading to thousands of canceled flights and train services, as well as significant disruptions to various public and retail services.
In South Florida, several agencies promptly informed the public about the outage. Here’s a closer look at how organizations in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties were impacted:
University of Miami & UHealth
The University of Miami and its UM Health System experienced connectivity issues across various applications, including UChart, early Friday morning due to the CrowdStrike outage. Despite these issues, the organization assured that their data’s security and confidentiality remained intact.
In an 11:45 a.m. update on Facebook, UM announced that its IT department had restored the majority of its systems. However, some isolated workstations may still require attention. “All UHealth hospitals and clinics remain open as scheduled and are under normal operations for patients,” UM shared.
Miami-Dade Police and Fire Rescue
Both the Miami-Dade Police Department and Fire Rescue reported on X (formerly Twitter) that their services were unaffected by the outage.
“All services are running as usual,” MDPD shared, with MDFR echoing the sentiment.
For emergencies, call 911. For non-emergencies, dial 305-4-POLICE.
Broward County Sheriff’s Office
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office informed CBS News Miami that it had not experienced any issues related to the outage.
HCA Healthcare
HCA Healthcare stated that while it had not been directly impacted by the outages, it was collaborating with vendors who were affected.
“We do not expect the incident to impact our ability to provide care to our patients,” HCA said in a statement.
Mount Sinai Hospital & Medical Center
Mount Sinai reported no impact from the outage as it does not use CrowdStrike services.
“All major systems are fully operational as we continue to deliver the highest quality of care to our patients,” the health system stated.
Baptist Health
Baptist Health told CBS News Miami that it is “actively working” to assess and address any potential system issues related to the outage to ensure continuous care delivery. Most of its services and applications remain operational.
Miami-Dade Transit
Miami-Dade Transit announced on X that it was aware of the global technical outage involving CrowdStrike but had not been impacted. Services including Metrobus, Metrorail, Metromover, and STS were operating normally.
Broward County Transit
Broward County Transit also confirmed via X that it was unaffected by the outage and that its systems were operating as normal.
“Passengers of Broward County Transit can have a sigh of relief this morning knowing that their early morning commute is unaffected by the worldwide internet outage currently affecting millions,” the agency shared. “Riders can use BCT as usual throughout the day.”
As the situation develops, affected organizations continue to work towards full recovery and assure the public of their commitment to service continuity.
