The dreaded “blue display screen of demise” hit non-critical computer systems en masse in New York Metropolis’s authorities workplaces after a failed tech replace crippled Microsoft worldwide.
Jail cameras, arrest processing software program and different metropolis governmental capabilities have been affected by the outage Friday, however 911 and emergency techniques remained untouched, metropolis officers stated.
Mayor Eric Adams pinned the mass crash on CrowdStrike, a US cybersecurity agency that despatched out a defective in a single day software program replace to computer systems operating Microsoft Home windows.
“They despatched out a software program replace that inadvertently took our techniques offline,” Adams stated from Metropolis Corridor on Friday morning. “This was not a cyberattack.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul known as the CrowdStrike failure — which rippled throughout New York Metropolis and the Empire State governmental companies — an “unprecedented scenario.”
She promised “most flexibility” by the state for issues, similar to New Yorkers lacking DMV deadlines.
“This can be a main, main public security concern,” she stated.
“This has had a widespread affect on hospital techniques.”
The outage’s complete affect on metropolis authorities computer systems remained unclear Friday morning, however sources stated Metropolis Council members’ computer systems have been down, as have been non-critical units in NYPD headquarters.
Screens in complete metropolis governmental workplaces confirmed the “blue display screen of demise” — an ominous error message thrown up by the Home windows working system — through the morning, sources stated.
Phil Banks, deputy mayor for public security, stated metropolis Division of Corrections cameras and arrest processing software program have been affected.
Past metropolis authorities, the outage hit many of the computer systems within the Manhattan Prison Courthouse, sources stated.
Prison arraignments have been quickly halted amid the outage, sources stated.
“Because of the outage this workplace is unable to reply questions,” one handwritten signal on a court docket clerk’s workplace acknowledged.
Scores of vacationers at JFK and LaGuardia airports have been additionally left stranded by the unprecedented and wide-scale web disruption.
Matthew Fraser, the town’s chief expertise officer, advised NBC Information that there has by no means been an issue of this scale for presidency entities.
He stated the outage fortunately appeared to bypass literal life-or-death pc techniques.
“Thankfully for us, our most crucial techniques — 911, 311, different issues like our site visitors administration techniques and our water administration techniques — reside in an area the place one of these affect is not going to affect the techniques,” he stated.
“So, because it stands proper now, our most crucial techniques are up and operating.”
Extra reporting by Kyle Schnitzer and Ben Kochman
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