Police, city operations unaffected by global technology outage

While a global technology outage grounded flights, affected banks and some media outlets in Canada and around the world on Friday, City of Sault Ste. Marie and Sault Ste. Marie Police Service operations are running smoothly.

“Our IT Department has confirmed that the city’s operations were not affected by the global information technology glitch,” wrote Tessa Vecchio, City spokesperson in an email to SooToday.

“Fortunately, our operations have not been impacted,” said Chelsey Foucher, Sault Ste. Marie Police Service spokesperson.  

However, Sault Area Hospital was affected and the health care facility’s information technology specialists are working to get SAH back online.

As reported earlier, a Code Grey went into effect at SAH early Friday morning. All computer systems, including patients’ electronic medical records are down. Manual procedures were expected to cause delays and some patient procedures may possibly be rescheduled.

Patients are still encouraged to call 911 or visit SAH’s emergency department in the event of an emergency.

SAH’s phone lines are still working, its main line (705) 759-3434.

The hospital’s paid parking gates are up at this time.

At least one other entity — the Alzheimer Society of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma — reported being affected by the outage and is unable to process donations.

Due to the global IT outage, our ability to process donations has been affected. We are closely monitoring the situation and appreciate your patience and understanding.

Your continued support is greatly valued, and we look forward to resolving this issue soon. pic.twitter.com/I18LYrSGlt

— Alzheimer Society of Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma (@AlzheimerSSMA) July 19, 2024

Airlines, police services and other users of Microsoft's 365 cloud services have reported outages worldwide starting last night. 

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue affected Microsoft 365 apps and services, and escalating disruptions continued after the technology company said it was gradually fixing it.