Some N.B. flights cancelled by what cybersecurity expert calls worst tech disruption in 20 years

New Brunswick did not escape the effects of a global tech outage disrupting multiple industries Friday, including banks, health care and airlines.

While Horizon and Vitalité health networks did not face the brunt of the outage, Fredericton and Moncton airports are both experiencing issues with Porter Airlines flights.

According to an alert sent by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to its clients and reviewed by Reuters, the company's Falcon Sensor software is causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known informally as the "blue screen of death."

George Kurtz, CrowdStrike's CEO, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to confirm that the company was working with customers "impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts."

He wrote that it was not a security incident or cyberattack and that the issue was identified, isolated and a fix was deployed.

Porter Airlines cancelled its flights until 4  p.m. Atlantic time, which affects the Fredericton and Moncton airports, but not Saint John.

Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport CEO Courtney Burns said passengers should expect delays or cancellations if flying with Porter Airlines. (Alexandre Silberman/CBC)

Courtney Burns, CEO of the Greater Moncton International Airport Authority, said on Friday mid-morning that its 7 a.m. flight to Ottawa had not departed, and that people should expect Porter flights to likely be delayed and possibly cancelled.

"Our best advice for passengers today is to check the status of their flight online, directly with their airline," she said.

"When coming to the airport, they can anticipate it may take a bit longer than it typically would to get checked into their flight at an airline counter — that may impact more than just our Porter airline passengers."

Shaun Collicot was supposed to be on an early morning Porter flight out of Fredericton, but found himself instead waiting, with no clue when he would be taking off, let alone boarding.

But he wasn't in a rush.

"Great weather, good food, good hospitality," he said.

Shaun Collicot didn't mind too much when his Porter flight back to Alberta was delayed on Friday. (Radio-Canada)

Collicot lives in Edmonton but is from Canterbury, near Woodstock, so he said he wouldn't mind staying another night in the place where he's from.

"It could be worse," he said. "Being in the Maritimes is nice."

Banks were also affected by the outage. National Bank said in a statement that it was aware of the issue, but "our online and mobile services, debit and credit cards and ATMs are fully functional."

UNI Financial also said it was not affected by the global situation, but it continues to monitor it.

Porter Airlines passengers at the Fredericton Airport were waiting on Friday morning to see if they would be getting to their destinations. (Radio-Canada)

TD and CIBC referred CBC News to the Canadian Banking Association. A spokesperson said banks were reviewing the situation but that "Canadians can be reassured that our country has a well-protected banking system. Any current impact on banking services would be temporary."

The spokesperson would not confirm what banks were affected.

'All at the mercy of one bad day'

David Shipley, a Fredericton-based cybersecurity expert and CEO of Beauceron Security, said the outage is the digital equivalent of "the airbag in your car that you have to protect you from bad things going off unexpectedly while you're driving."

He said CrowdStrike is a major anti-malware and anti-hacking tool used by some of the biggest organizations in the world, including Microsoft, and it essentially had a bad update.

"The irony shouldn't be lost on anyone, nor should the sobering fact that had this actually been malicious, it would be even worse than what we're experiencing right now," he said.

Cybersecurity expert David Shipley said it may take days for some organizations to fully recover from the outage. (Submitted by David Shipley)

Shipley said the outage is likely the biggest disruption seen globally in over 20 years.

He said while there is a solution for individual Windows PCs, because much information technology is remotely managed due to the pandemic and changing workforces, it may take days for some organizations to fully recover from the outage.

On top of that, he said global disruptions to airlines often take days to unclog.

But even with a fix, Shipley said Friday's outage should be discomforting to everyone.

"Left unchecked, technology companies will grow as big as they can and have as much impact as they can, because that's how our economic system works," he said.

"There is a necessary requirement for us to have smart regulation of massive tech companies in the same way that we regulate banks, telecommunications providers and others for the public good.

"If we do not get public policy, and particularly the massive gap in education among lawmakers … resolved ASAP, to get a handle on this, we are all going to be suffering from this, and we are all at the mercy of one bad day or one bad actor."