GREENSBORO, N.C. — A global technology outage caused major disruptions across industries ranging from hospitals to banks to airlines, leaving millions stranded or unable to work.
The outage has been traced back to a cybersecurity company called CrowdStrike, which provides anti-cyberattack services to Microsoft and other large companies.
Traveling
Piedmont Triad International (PTI) Airport was dealing with many delays early Friday morning. Flights were changing and confusing travelers as the outage impacted most airlines.
Some travelers told WFMY News 2's Ben Briscoe that they were at the airport for hours waiting and receiving updates on their flights.
Traveler Nicole Boswell shared with Briscoe that she was a 9/11 survivor and that is what's keeping her positive.
"A lot of experience gave me positivity," she said. "So much has enriched me. Don't sweat the small stuff because you never know what's gonna happen."
The first flight began departing from the airport around a little after 8 a.m.
Hospitals
The outage is impacting Cone Health as well. The hospital system said when something like this happens, it goes into a 'down-time procedure' - that's when they use paper records when computer access is down.
Cone Health said scheduled non-emergency surgeries have been postponed. Medical offices are calling scheduled patients with morning appointments to let them know if they are impacted. The health care system said most primary care sites are operating normally. Urgent care and emergency departments are open as scheduled, and emergency services like heart and stroke care are running.
"Systems are slowly returning to normal. We do not know when we will return to normal operation, but progress is steady," said a Cone Health spokesperson in a 9 a.m. update. "Our staff trains for instances such as these and those skills are being applied to continue providing the care our patients need and expect."
Cone Health said it would have another update around noon.
DMV
The state DMV said it's unable to assist customers Monday morning because of the outage as well.
Several WFMY News 2 viewers have told us they had to be turned away at their local DMV office due to the issue. NCDMV said it's driver's license and license plate services have been impacted. They're planning to contact customers to reschedule their appointments.
The NCDMV operates 115 driver license offices statewide and 126 license plate agencies in the state that are operated by private businesses but overseen by NCDMV.
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