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The CrowdStrike outage has struck healthcare, shutting down services and electronic medical records at hospitals across the US.
The colossal cyber outage on July 18 and 19 was reportedly caused by an update issue in Microsoft systems using cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor, a detection software that works like an antivirus program.
According to a Friday statement from the vendor, the event was not a security incident or cyberattack, but even still, it has delayed and canceled thousands of flights, disrupted banking, and forced hospitals to delay care.
In response to the outage, Mass General Brigham in Massachusetts has canceled its elective and nonemergent surgeries and procedures as well as ambulatory care across affiliated facilities. The health system has also asked that clinical teams “limit routine lab and radiology orders to urgent needs only,” and use electronic medical records platform Epic in read-only mode.
That’s according to an internal email shared with Healthcare Brew on Friday from Christina Lundquist, SVP of clinical services, real estate, and facility operations at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio also reported “some disruptions,” according to ABC News, and said that patients who arrive for surgery or radiology appointments will “likely face delays,” the outlet reported separately.
In a statement on Friday, John Riggi, national advisor for cybersecurity and risk for the American Hospital Association, said that the organization is “hearing from hospitals and health systems that the impact varies widely.”
“Some have experienced little to no impact while others are dealing directly with some disruptions to medical technology, communications, and third-party service providers. These disruptions are resulting in some clinical procedure delays, diversions, or cancellations,” Riggi added.
Hospitals are also experiencing disruptions because some emergency call centers are down, he said.
CrowdStrike is currently working with customers who were impacted by the outage, especially as concerns grow among some who believe this incident shows the fragility of certain software, IT Brew reported.
Think tank Open Markets Institute’s Europe Director Max von Thun said in a press release Friday that the outage is a “clear demonstration” of the concentration of technology systems that institutions critically rely on.
“Today’s dominant tech giants need to be recognized for what they are—essential utilities—and regulated accordingly. This includes not just ensuring their infrastructure is secure and resilient, but also eliminating their ability to abuse their market power over customers,” von Thun said. “We also urgently need to develop alternatives to today’s cloud computing oligopoly.”