News
Here's what the global technology outage affected in West Michigan
July 19, 2024
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Most West Michigan infrastructure remained intact through the global technology outage that stymied flights worldwide, though there were some hiccups affecting health care and restaurants.
Corewell Health said many of its computers and systems were affected. The health care system said in a statement Friday that might delay some procedures and appointments, like labs. However, hospitals and emergency rooms remained open.
“We have many solutions in place that allow us to continue to care for our patients,” a Corewell spokesperson said in a statement Friday afternoon. “We appreciate the continued understanding from our patients who are experiencing delays and are thankful to the dedicated team members who have been working on this issue.”
Patients are advised to visit CorewellHealth.org for updates.
Bronson Healthcare said it was not seeing any direct impact on its systems but continued to closely monitor the situation.
The Associated Press reports that the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike believes the issue was not a cyberattack but a system update problem. The outage disrupted flights — including at Gerald R. Ford International Airport near Grand Rapids — banks, media outlets and companies worldwide.
“So it’s not a cybersecurity attack, but it happened because of the negligence and as you can see, the business impact is huge,” Grand Valley State University [College] of Computing Associate Professor Vijay Bhuse said.
But, he added, “It’s a rare event. I don’t think it’s going to happen frequently.”
Michigan State Police, Consumers Energy and most county 911 dispatch centers in West Michigan said they were unaffected. DTE Energy said all of its systems were working as of Friday morning, though it did have some feature outages on its website and mobile app over night.
The Cass County Sheriff’s Office said its central dispatch phone services were affected but could still handle emergency and non-emergency calls. Phone services were fully restored Friday morning. Van Buren County Central Dispatch said it was briefly affected, but systems are back up and running.
The city of Grand Rapids said all of its operations, including emergency and critical services, were not impacted. The city’s website went down for a time, but online payment services were still working. The city said anyone still having trouble with any online services after the site came back up should call 311 for help.
West Michigan-based grocery operator SpartanNash said it saw minor impacts but quickly got things back in order.
“Very, very minor hiccups through some of our Starbucks stores, as well as a number of vendors that use the technology, but we got we got back online here and will be transparent to our customers,” CEO Tony Sarsam told News 8.
The outage stymied ordering through Starbucks’ app around the country. The Starbucks on the East Beltline at Knapp Street NE in Grand Rapids was closed as a result. The one in the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel downtown was open and, though mobile order was down, still accepting payment through the app in person.
The SpartanNash CEO credited his company’s a quick return to normal service to having established backup systems.
“We live in very complicated times, particularly from a technology standpoint. So we have a great team that actually thinks about backup systems and making sure that we’re ready for any of these things as they come,” he said. “And our team, because of just the embedded desire to serve, they always find a way. And we found a way instantaneously this morning on how to get back online and get back and serve our customers.”
The GVSU professor said a diversified approach can limit technology failure impacts.
“Linux and Apple-based MacOS are not affected, so having different systems around does help so you’re not putting all eggs in one basket,” Bhuse said.
The outage brought down phone services for a number of state agencies, including the state Unemployment Insurance Agency, Department of the Treasury and Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The state Department of Technology, Management and Budget said around 1 p.m. that “all state agency call centers are able to receive customer calls again.” The DTMB said it was keeping an eye on the global outage.
Article written by WOOD TV's Michael Oszust, Rachel Van Gilder, &
Demetrios Sanders and News 8's Brittany Flowers. Read original
article here.
Article edited by Shelby Harrison.