Which Kansas City area services are down due to global Microsoft outage? Get the latest
A worldwide software glitch caused much of the world to come to a screeching halt Friday morning, as airlines, offices, hospitals and media companies were taken offline.
The outage led to flights getting canceled and delayed at Kansas City International Airport, the airport announced X, formerly known as Twitter. By Friday afternoon, most airlines were back on normal operations.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack, the Associated Press reported, but a faulty update sent to Windows computers.
The outage has impacted many Kansas City-area organizations and businesses, including hospitals, government services and other businesses.
Here are a few that we know were shut down or are having operating changes due to the outage.
Saint Luke’s Health System
The system with hospitals in midtown KC and Lee’s Summit said the outage affected “access to numerous servers, programs, and computers. This was not a cybersecurity attack,” Saint Luke’s said in a statement on Facebook.
The hospital said on Facebook that patients should arrive at their scheduled appointment times but may have to wait longer because of the outage.
The University of Kansas Health System
KU Med said on X on Friday it had experienced some delays as a result of the outage, but that patient care shouldn’t be significantly interrupted because the health system had an alternate process prepared.
In a press release Friday afternoon, KU Med said it was still working on repairing all of its systems, with a focus on patient care. For patients whose appointments were affected, the health system said it would be contacting them to reschedule.
Social Security offices
Social Security offices in the Kansas City area closed Friday because of the outage. The phone line, 800-772-1213, is still open, as are most online services at ssa.gov.
Driver’s license and DMV offices in Kansas and Missouri
The Kansas Department of Revenue said on Facebook that due to ongoing global IT issues, all Kansas driver’s license offices will be closed for the remainder of the day, and that people with appointments will be notified. The department’s website gives an error when people try to visit it online.
Some offices for the Missouri Department of Revenue around Kansas City, including vehicle registration and driver’s license offices, are also shut down for the day because of the outage, a spokesperson confirmed to The Star. The outages are also happening statewide.
Kansas City, Kansas Police Department
KCKPD’s website was down for some time Friday. Media relations specialist Nancy Chartrand said that it was the only thing was impacted by the outage. The rest of their services are still online.
Kansas Court System
Lea D. Welch, court administrator for the Third Judicial District, issued a press release regarding a global cyber outage impacting Kansas courts.
“The issue appears to have been caused by an update to the Crowdstrike Falcon antivirus software and is affecting systems across the world,” Welch said in the press release. “Please note this is not the result of a cybersecurity attack.”
Unified Government of Wyandotte County and KCK
If you’re trying to pay bills, pay property taxes or register a vehicle online in KCK, those websites are down, a spokesperson confirmed. There is no specific time when the county government expects these services to return.
You can still pay fines in municipal court, however.
If you have questions about accessing services or businesses around Kansas City, ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published July 19, 2024 at 1:03 PM.
