Top city officials said Friday that critical New York City systems, like emergency services, are still operational amid a global software outage that has affected flights, hospitals and businesses.
Mayor Eric Adams, during a briefing with several of his top City Hall aides Friday morning, emphasized the outage was caused by a software update to the Microsoft cybersecurity software Crowdstrike and was not a cyber attack. The outage hit the city early Friday morning, he added.
“They sent out his software update that inadvertently took systems offline,” Adams told reporters. “This was not a cyber attack.”
The mayor said that 911 and 311 call services, emergency dispatch and radio operations, water systems and traffic lights have not been affected by the outage. He added that no calls are being held or missed and that there is no backlog at the Fire Department.
“We want to assure New Yorkers that 911 call systems have not been impacted, our infrastructure and emergency operations, they are all in place,” Adams said. “Life-saving complaints that come through 311 or city agencies, they are all being prioritized.”
Matthew Frasher, the city’s Chief Technology Officer, said that once Crowdstrike told his office about the software issue, they stopped deploying the software patch. He said his agency is actively working to fix the issue, but it could take a while because it has to be done manually.
While most critical services are operating as usual, Fraser said some computer systems across city agencies used for non-essential day-to-day services were affected.
“So if you go in to file for a permit or you go in to request some other service, you go to pay a bill online, like a water bill or a parking ticket, you might find yourself in a position where those services may be online offline temporarily,” Fraser said. “But as I said, we’re moving through and we have the pathway to recovery. And we’re confident that soon we’ll be back to a normal operating state.”
MTA CEO and Chair Janno Lieber said the outage has not derailed subway, bus, paratransit or commuter train service in and around the five boroughs. The impacts, he said, are limited to subway countdown clocks for the lettered train lines.
“Every single operating system is functioning,” Lieber said. “You may not have up to date information, just like the countdown clocks are not 100%, you may not have up to date information on exactly when commuter trains are arriving. But all of that is coming online pretty promptly.”
