Global IT outage hits Canada: Airports, TD Bank, U.S. border, hospital disruptions and more after faulty CrowdStrike update

In an update shared to X on Friday afternoon, Canadian health care provider Dynacare shared their British Columbia locations will be reopening doors as of 1 p.m. PST.

Locations across Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba remain shuttered, with the provider saying "we are working to reopen as soon as possible" in an update to their site.

Dynacare (formerly Gamma-Dynacare Medical Laboratories) is one of Canada’s largest, most established health solutions companies with a history spanning more than 50 years.

The health network provides services like collection and transportation of specimens, accurate testing, such as bloodwork, and prompt reporting of results to patients, healthcare professionals, hospitals, corporate clients and government agencies across Canada.

In an interview with CBC News, Fredericton-based cybersecurity expert David Shipley warned it may take days for some organizations to fully recover from the outage. In addition, widespread global disruptions to airlines often take days to unclog.

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

The Canada Revenue Agency started sending out Canada Child Benefit (CCB) payments on July 19, but after some recipients said they had not received their deposit, the federal government posted a warning that payments may be delayed as a result of the worldwide IT outage.

Minister of National Revenue Marie-Claude Bibeau took to social media issuing reassurance that the federal government is aware of "potential challenges some banks may encounter in delivering the payments" and will work with the banks to "ensure seamless transactions."

Malicious actors are attempted to exploit the tech outage by means of phishing emails, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security warns.

Emails purporting to come from CrowdStrike have tried to lure users into downloading malicious files, Sami Khoury, the head of the centre, tells CBC News. Users affected by the outage who are eager to restore services need to be "extremely wary" and verify the provenance of any communications before clicking any links or downloading files, he said.

The Cyber Centre recommends organizations reinforce to employees to only trust recommended sources and to not click links on untrusted or questionable emails.

Click here for more tips to keep yourself and your data safe.

In an update shared Friday afternoon, Porter Airlines announced operations are resuming in the wake of the global tech outage that shuttered operations nationwide earlier in the day.

"The website will be restored when all systems are back online and automated passenger rebooking has begun," reads a statement shared by the airline.

As systems come online, the airline urges passengers to check their current flight status on http://flyporter.com or via the mobile app.

As people worldwide reel from the impacts stemming from a tech outage as a result of a faulty update by CrowdStrike, the issue has been identified and a fix deployed, the company writes in a statement.

"We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up," the statement reads.

In their latest statement, CrowdStrike also provided additional information on the issue, and workaround steps organizations can take.

TD Bank Canada customers began reporting issues early Friday morning. The bank issued an online statement in the afternoon stating that they were impacted by the tech outage.

"TD has been impacted by the global technology disruption that has affected organizations around the world. Teams are working hard to restore digital systems. TD customers can visit Stores or ATMs," the bank shared in an update to their site.

Earlier in the day, social media users turned to the X platform as no update had been shared. Many are reporting that the tech outage is impacting direct deposit transactions.

Another user is reporting that the bank's phone lines are closed as well.

At least one major Canadian telecommunications carrier said the outage had affected its operations.

A spokeswoman for Telus said some of its employees were unable to access "the tools and systems necessary to support our customers." The company was working with "the utmost urgency" to get the systems working again, she said.

Bell and Rogers, two of the other major carriers, are both reporting that their networks are unaffected.

Some health networks in Canada turned to social media to update patients in the wake of the ongoing IT outage. Here are some major hospitals and health networks across the country that have been impacted.

Ontario

The University Health Network (UHN), which includes several hospitals and clinics in Ontario such as Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital, announced on Friday that it was affected by the outage.

CHEO, the children's hospital in Ottawa, said it's still providing services but has had to find workarounds where needed.

"We do not anticipate any impact on our services offered to children and their families today," the hospital wrote in a statement.

The Queensway Carleton Hospital said it was also impacted overnight, but its health record system has since been restored and surgeries and appointments aren't impacted.

Likewise Glengarry Memorial Hospital in Alexandria, Ont., said it had faced minor disruptions but that the situation was improving.

Meanwhile, the Montfort Hospital in Ottawa said all its systems are functioning and appointments are happening as normal.

Ottawa police, paramedics and firefighters all told CBC they're unaware of any problems due to the outage.

Newfoundland

In an update shared Friday morning, NL Health Services announced they too were impacted by the global IT outage.

"NL Health Services has implemented contingency plans and is focused on the delivery of emergency care as we work with our global partners to resolve the outage," the network shared in a statement.

British Columbia

Vancouver Coast Health, which encompasses numerous health networks in British Columbia, including Mount St. Joseph Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital, reported being affected by the outage.

Manitoba

On the Dyncare website, it states, “Global IT issues are impacting Dynacare systems. All Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia locations are closed. We are working to reopen as soon as possible."

Porter Airlines has cancelled all of its flights until at least 3 p.m. E.T. today in the wake of the global technology outage.

Porter announced it is working on a plan for its passengers. You can find more information here.

"Passengers cannot be rebooked while systems are offline. The rebooking process will take a period of time, with new flights confirmed over a number of days due to high passenger volume," Porter said in a statement.

"Further delays and cancellations are possible."

Porter's not the only airline that may be affected. A spokesperson from Toronto's Pearson Airport told CBC News the impacts varied "airline to airline," with Air Canada, Westjet, Sunwing and Flair's flights on track but several American carriers seeing disruptions.

"We are continuing to work with our airline partners as the global IT outage impacts some airlines. Travellers may notice the terminals are busier than normal this morning as we anticipate connecting 135,000 passengers today," Pearson said in a statement.

The global IT outage that has heavily affected airlines, banks and media outlets around the world has made an impact on many Canadians. As is tradition, Canadians have taken to X (formerly known as Twitter) to voice their concerns and displeasure of this massive internet outage.

While many Canadians have been impacted by today's events, others haven't seen a significant impact at all.