The global outage is having a limited local impact.
Affecting computer systems, the outage is having an impact at Barrie’s Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH).
“Due to the global IT outage, RVH is experiencing delays in lab and diagnostic results and longer-than-normal wait times in the emergency department,” said Jess Dolan, communications representative with RVH corporate communications.
Some local businesses had signs posted in their storefronts today, including Victoria's Secret at Georgian Mall and The Shoe Company on Bayfield Street. Others were open for businesses, but only accepting cash.
Peter Leon, communications co-ordinator with Barrie Police Service, said the outage’s effect was limited.
“We were temporarily impacted overnight, but were fully operational by 6 a.m. (Friday),” he said. “Due to operational issues, I cannot identify what specifically was impacted.”
Paul Markle, executive director of the Barrie Chamber of Commerce, said the outage has had no impact at the chamber, which works on a Google platform.
“I've only heard of one other business that's been affected,” he said. “It was just a member call I was on and they mentioned they had a few issues with Microsoft. I followed back up and they were back in business and didn't actually close.”
Jen Straw, the County of Simcoe’s senior public relations consultant, communications and events, said the outage has had no effect there.
“We’ve confirmed with our director of IT that we have not experienced any impacts, as we do not utilize the CrowdStrike service,” she said, noting this includes Lake Simcoe Regional Airport as well.
Scott LaMantia, Access Barrie’s manager of marketing and communications, said City of Barrie services have not been impacted by the outage.
Airlines, banks and health-care systems are the primary institutions impacted by Friday’s global CrowdStrike outage. CrowdStrike has said the issue is due to a defect in a content update, and is not a cyberattack.
The update has caused issues for Windows systems, resulting in crashes. The company said it is working to fix the issue.
The impact on airlines has affected thousands of people globally, with delays across the continent.
CrowdStrike is an "endpoint security" company that uses cloud technology to apply cyber protections to devices connected to the internet.
