Driver’s licenses, trash routes, hotel bookings among Waco impacts of global IT outage

Blame the mess on CrowdStrike, an Austin-based cybersecurity company whose faulty Windows update ignited the firestorm that snarled banking systems, airports, hospitals and personal computers around the world.

Major airlines, including American, Delta and United, grounded hundreds of flights while delaying others and forcing travelers to stew or make other arrangements. Several local businesses said their IT staffs saved the day by detecting problems early and troubleshooting and intervening before the problems ballooned.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said driver’s license offices statewide shut down “due to a technical issue which is related to the global CrowdStrike incident.”

Waco-area DPS spokesperson Sgt. Ryan Howard said the agency tried to notify those with appointments. He said IT teams were working diligently to fix the problem, but DPS had no current estimate on when driver’s license offices would open.

Waco Regional Airport emerged relatively unscathed, though aviation director Joel Martinez said he became aware of problems globally.

“Our morning flight, which departs about 5 a.m., left about 20 minutes late due to some issues at the ticket counter,” Martinez said, adding that a flight departing Waco Regional at about 10:30 a.m. for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport left without a hitch.

Neither he nor a person who identified himself as a supervisor at the American Eagle office in Waco expressed doubts a flight scheduled to leave at 6:30 p.m. would do so.

“Fortunately, we are not part of the larger impact this is having on travelers,” said Martinez, remarking that this could serve as a marketing point.

Austen Caronia, who directs the Waco Hilton’s front office operations, said he learned something was amiss around 11 p.m. Thursday, “when we couldn’t get logged into our computers.”

By noon Friday he said partial access had been restored, “though we’re not fully back.”

He said some guests showed frustration over delays in getting their rooms, and left to eat lunch or run errands until service was restored.

Local hotelier Kary Lalani did not experience major issues Friday.

“I’m sure across the industry hotels will be disrupted from an occupancy perspective as it sounds like travelers will be dealing with flight delays, cancellations and chaos for the next few days,” he said. “Hopefully, everything will be restored quickly.”

The city of Waco released a statement, saying, “Overnight, the City of Waco network was negatively impacted by a ‘bad patch’ from the Anti-Virus vendor CrowdStrike. For a brief time, there were some integral servers and workstations offline, in addition to some Windows workstations.

“Our Information Technology Department responded and worked through the night to restore all systems. Today they have visited all City locations to address affected devices,” the release stated. “This is the same issue affecting airlines, governments, banks, and other networks across the world.”

The city statement noted that all city departments, including police and fire, “have and practice manual processes to ensure public safety and critical infrastructure are not in danger in these types of situations.”

Jim Halbert, chief appraiser for the McLennan Central Appraisal District, said his office faced issues its IT vendor remedied with a visit early Friday morning, when internet service was restored.

He said via email Friday afternoon MCAD still was not able to access its database “at the moment,” but said it would meet the July 25 deadline to certify appraisals.

Kody Petillo, Waco’s director of solid waste, said billing software at the Waco landfill was not working properly early Friday morning, but IT had the situation remedied before customers began arriving.

He said a software called Routeware, used exclusively for route guidance in the solid waste industry, also was not functioning early Friday, meaning the city dispatched its most experienced drivers and operators to service the routes.

The Associated Press reported that a faulty software update wreaked havoc on Friday. The update issued by CrowdStrike affected customers running Microsoft Windows. It was not the result of hacking or a cyberattack, according to CrowdStrike, which apologized and said a fix was on the way.

Several local TV stations nationally could not broadcast early Friday, and some state and local governments reported problems at courts, motor vehicle departments, unemployment agencies, and emergency call centers.

Affected hospitals had problems with appointment systems, forcing them to suspend patient visits and cancel some surgeries.

Locally, Baylor Scott & White Health had this to say: “Our priority is the health, safety and wellbeing of those we serve and our team members. Patient care is safely continuing as we work through issues related to the technical disruption that is impacting computer systems across the globe.”

It would not identify issues it is working to resolve.

Joe Nesbitt, president and CEO of Central National Bank, said in an email response that issues at the bank were short-lived.

“Our IT team became aware of the issue in the early hours this morning and had us back up and running by 7:30 a.m.,” he said.

Waco-based economist Ray Perryman acknowledged the outage “will no doubt have tragic human costs and associated economic losses. On the whole, however, it appears that much of the effect will be manifested in delays and inconvenience rather than substantial economic costs.”

“On a worldwide basis, the losses will almost certainly be in the billions, but not enough to move the needle on overall growth,” he said. “For individual areas, the effects will be relatively small, and there is no reason to expect that Central Texas will bear a disproportionate burden.”