A global technology outage caused significant disruptions across Canada on Friday, grounding flights, affecting hospital operations, and causing delays at border crossings. The outage stemmed from a faulty update deployed by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to computers running Microsoft Windows. CrowdStrike confirmed that the issue was not a security incident or cyberattack but rather a software update gone wrong. The problem primarily impacted Microsoft 365 apps and services .
Impact on Air Travel: Toronto Pearson International Airport and Montréal–Trudeau International Airport both warned that the outage could lead to flight delays and cancellations. Porter Airlines cancelled its flights until 12 p.m. ET due to the issue, affecting numerous travelers, including Andrew Breeding, who was scheduled to fly home to Los Angeles. “I’m just trying to be understanding,” said Breeding .
Meanwhile, Air Canada and WestJet reported no major impact on their operations, indicating a more stable response to the outage
Hospital Operations: University Health Network, one of Canada’s largest hospital networks, reported that some of its systems were affected by the outage, potentially causing delays for patients. Despite this, clinical activity continued as scheduled. St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton also experienced IT issues but remained open and operational .
Border Crossings: The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) experienced a partial systems outage affecting its telephone reporting system for small aircraft passengers and boaters. The CBSA worked quickly with partners and service providers to mitigate disruptions and restore service. Although the issue was resolved, Windsor police reported long delays at both the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel earlier in the day .
Government and Banking Sector: The government of Newfoundland and Labrador warned users of potential service disruptions to its digital platforms, with the province’s health authority also affected. Banks across Canada were reviewing the situation based on updates from their technology partners. The Canadian Bankers Association assured that any impacts on banking services would be temporary .
Technology Sector Response: Microsoft 365 reported on social media platform X that they were rerouting impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate the issue, observing a positive trend in service availability. CrowdStrike issued a statement confirming that the defect had been identified, isolated, and fixed. This incident has highlighted the significant dependence on a few major operating systems and the vulnerabilities that can arise from such concentration .
Expert Insight: Brent Arnold, a Toronto-based cybersecurity and technology lawyer, described the outage as “a software update gone wrong,” noting it as one of the largest scale incidents seen to date. He emphasized the vulnerabilities that come with heavy reliance on a few pieces of vital technology, suggesting it could take days or weeks to fully understand the impact .