Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said repairs were in progress on the faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows, company President and CEO George Kurtz said on X. Officials with the state of Michigan's Department of Technology, Management & Budget, which oversees state government's information technology services, also said Friday the outage is affecting its systems.
"A known global IT outage is currently impacting customers' ability to access some government services, mainly through state call centers," the state Department of Technology, Management & Budget said in a statement on X. "DTMB is aware of the concern and taking appropriate steps to bring our systems back online."
In particular, the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency said the outage left its phone and online chat services limited.
"Workers are not able to speak or chat online with agents due to the system issues. Technicians are currently working to resolve the issue, with no current resolution time," the agency said in a statement. "Help is still available online or in-person, using the Michigan Web Account Manager (MiWAM), which has not been affected by the outage. Workers can still access our automated Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) service through UIA’s online chat feature and customer service line to get limited claim information."
Macomb County Deputy Executive Tom Lehrer said employee computers were affected by the technology outage. As soon as the county heard about the outage, it prioritized Macomb County Dispatch and got it “up and running as soon as possible.”
It's unclear how long the dispatch operation was down, Lehrer said, but the information technology personnel came in at 1 a.m. to help get the system back up and running.
The county then started fixing other computers, he said, adding that the county has been deploying a patch to laptops.
The Detroit Police Department said it was not affected.
The University of Michigan's Division of Public Safety and Security in Ann Arbor said in a post on X that its phone system was down, but did not directly say it was due to the computer outage.
"Our 911 and non-emergency (734) 763-1131 phone lines are experiencing technical difficulties," it said in the post. "For emergency situations, text 911 from a cell phone. For non-emergencies email dpss-safety-security@umich.edu.
The impact across the rest of the UM in Ann Arbor was much smaller. The outage may be affecting professors and students, a UM official said.
"Some faculty, staff, and units using Windows may be experiencing issues with logging into their computers this morning …," Vice President for Information Technology Ravi Pendse said in an email sent to campus Friday. "Desktop/laptop systems that were off or in sleep mode should not be affected, however desktop/laptop systems that were running overnight may be stuck in a reboot loop and you will need assistance.”
In Dearborn, the outage forced Henry Ford College to close for the day, according to a statement on the college's website.
"Due to a global issue that affects virus scanning for enterprise-level Windows PCs, on-campus PCs cannot be used today, and Henry Ford College is closed. All classes are canceled," the college said, adding that this was not due to a hacking incident and that no data had been compromised or lost.
"Further information will be sent on email, which you can access remotely or on your mobile device," the college added. "Your home computer and mobile device will not be affected by the outage, because it is an enterprise-level outage.
Staff Writer George Hunter contributed.
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