Saskatoon Transit, Sask. Health Authority's 811 line among those affected by global IT outage
A tech outage has disrupted operations in multiple industries around the globe, but only minimal effects have been reported for public services in Saskatchewan so far.
Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike says the company's Falcon Sensor software is causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, according to Reuters.
The problem sends Windows machines and servers into a recovery loop, rendering them unable to properly restart.
Minimal effect in Saskatchewan
The problem has not seemed to seriously affect public services in Saskatchewan.
The Saskatoon Police Service and Regina Police Service have independently confirmed they were not affected by Friday's outage, as they do not use Crowdstrike.
So far the City of Saskatoon has only advised about issues affecting Saskatoon Transit and Access Transit.
Both services are operating, but a statement issued online says both services are "experiencing phone line disruptions" and cannot receiving incoming calls.
Other disruptions for Saskatoon Transit include:
Customers will be unable to see real-time bus locations.
Service alerts cannot be pushed to the Saskatoon Transit app.
Mobile ticketing purchases are intermittently unavailable in the Transit and TGo apps. Fares already purchased in the apps remain available for use.
The OnDemand Transit app remains unaffected, the city said. The downtown transit office also remains open, with physical tickets for sale.
The City of Regina says it does not use Crowdstrike produces and so their systems have been unaffected.
Regina Public Library says some internal services have been impacted, but customer service has not.
The University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina have independently confirmed they do not use Crowdstrike and therefore have not been directly impacted.
According to the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), its Healthline 811 services were unavailable for several hours on Friday morning, but have since been restored.
"At this time patients can continue to access emergency or acute care services delivered in SHA facilities," the authority said in a news release.
Anyone experiencing an emergency is urged to call 911.
Airports not affected, but travellers warned to check itinerary
The Regina Airport Authority and the Saskatoon Airport Authority have confirmed flights from both major airports in the province are unaffected.
Major American airlines such as Delta, American and United have been hit hard by the outage. International airports in Montreal and Vancouver have said U.S. customs officials could not process passengers heading to American destinations.
In Saskatchewan, the airports are urging travellers to check their itineraries before leaving.
"If customers are connecting onward to a United or Delta flight, they will definitely want to check their itinerary," said Justin Reves, director of public relations at the Regina Airport Authority.
Riders game to go ahead as scheduled
The Saskatchewan Roughriders game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is set to go ahead on Friday after "minimal" impact from the outage, according to the team.
The issues were "mostly around downloading and transferring tickets," according to Arielle Zerr, the Roughriders' director of communications.
"We are fortunate to have seen all of that resolved recently and all fan-facing ticketing systems are operating normally," Zerr said.
"Tickets continue to sell exceptionally well for tonight's game and we're expecting a big crowd."
