The MBTA on Friday morning reported that bus tracking and signage inside its train stations may be “incorrect or unavailable” due to what the transit system described as a “software issue” amid a widespread technology outage that has forced the cancellation of flights and “non-urgent” medical procedures in New England.
The transit system said Friday it was working to resolve the issue as quickly as it could. Despite the technical issues, trains were still operating as intended, the MBTA posted on X. Both the MBTA’s subway and commuter rail lines were impacted.
The technology outage impacting Microsoft 365 services and apps has also forced the cancellation of dozens of flights in and out of New England airports. Mass General Brigham, which operates 14 hospitals in Massachusetts and one in New Hampshire, canceled all “non-urgent” procedures Friday due to the outage.
- Read more: Microsoft outage causing flight delays, cancellations out of New England airports
- Read more: ‘Non-urgent’ medical procedures at New England hospitals canceled amid tech outage
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack — and that a fix was on the way. The company said the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows.
But hours after the problem was first detected, the disarray continued — and escalated.
Long lines formed at airports in the U.S., Europe and Asia as airlines lost access to check-in and booking services at a time when many travelers are heading away on summer vacations.
DownDectector, which tracks user-reported disruptions to internet services, recorded that airlines, payment platforms and online shopping websites across the world were affected — although the disruption appeared piecemeal and was apparently related to whether the companies used Microsoft cloud-based services.
Cyber expert James Bore said real harm would be caused by the outage because systems we’ve come to rely on at critical times are not going to be available. Hospitals, for example, will struggle to sort out appointments and those who need care may not get it.
“There are going to be deaths because of this. It’s inevitable,’’ Bore said. “We’ve got so many systems tied up with this.”
Microsoft 365 posted on social media platform X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
