Here’s what critical Bay Area infrastructure has been impacted by global IT outage

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A crippling cybersecurity outage brought down computer networks for businesses, governments, and airports across the globe Thursday night into Friday morning.

CrowdStrike, which services large corporations and government clients, was the company impacted. The defect was found in a single content update for Windows hosts and was not a security incident or cyberattack.

Here’s a look at how places in the Bay Area, including critical infrastructure and businesses, were impacted by the outage.

MORE: CrowdStrike says widespread disruptions were not the result of security incident or cyberattack

San Francisco Internationa Airport

Passengers from across the globe were left stranded at the San Francisco International Airport, amid a software outage causing worldwide disruptions.

“I mean this is a mess,” Frank Desimone, a San Jose resident said.

“I get it, there’s technical issues but it’s very frustrating,” Andrew Martin, an Australian resident said.

The FAA says United, American, Delta, and Allegiant Airlines were all grounded overnight. Now, they’re slowly coming back online.

However, both Delta and United are warning passengers to expect disruptions throughout the day on Friday.

“So I get here 5:30 a.m., checked in, they checked all of my luggage and went to sit down, and about a half hour later they came on and said all flights canceled even though the plane is there sitting at the gate,” Desimone said.

Desimone drove up from San Jose early Friday morning. His 20-year-old daughter is in the hospital nearly 2,400 miles away in Honolulu, but he still couldn’t get rebooked on another flight until Saturday.

“It’s not fun and I’m going to have to talk to my daughter, it’s definitely a tough situation she’s in,” he said. “She’s going in for surgery so now I’m praying that they delay the surgery, maybe it won’t happen today.”

MORE: Flying amid CrowdStrike outage: What to expect next and tips to navigate travel chaos

Then there’s Andrew Martin here on a layover from Australia.

“I landed in San Fran at about 4:30 p.m. yesterday,” he said.

Forced to sleep here overnight, he’s been stuck for more than 12 hours as he waits to get rebooked.

“Yeah a little disappointed,” Martin said. “I would say it’s a long way from Australia to the U.S. to start with, which sucks, but I’m going to make the most of it.”

Despite long lines at every ticket counter, Everett Kelley managed to remain calm. He’s the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing 750,000 federal workers nationwide.

“It’s not pleasant, but I just ask people to be patient and consider the other person, right, consider that these employees, it’s easy to lash out at them but they had nothing to do with it,” Kelley said. “They couldn’t do anything so we have to be patient and just wait until they resolve the issue.”

Both Delta and United said they are working to issue travel waivers to help passengers change their travel plans.

Other Bay Area airports

While San Francisco International had major problems with the I.T. outage, things were much better at the other Bay Area airports.

Multiple airlines experienced delays at San Jose Mineta International Airport, but only one flight was canceled and most of the delays were less than an hour.

There were also only a handful of delays and cancelations at Oakland International Airport.

Arriving flights were the most affected. Two incoming flights on Spirit and one on Delta Airlines were canceled.

Only three departing flights were affected by delays.

Oakland emergency services

Perhaps most concerning of all is the impact on emergency services.

The City of Oakland says it is aware of the cybersecurity outage affecting jurisdictions worldwide.

It issued a statement saying:

“The impacts in Oakland have caused many computers to become inaccessible and are being evaluated and responded to now. “

Oakland’s 911 call lines remain active and open to receive emergency calls from the community.

The city says people can continue to report emergencies by dialing 911.

Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente issued a statement Friday morning on how it’s being affected by the global I.T. outage.

It says in part:

“In some situations, we have activated backup systems to support both continuous patient care and to secure access to medical records. All Kaiser Permanente hospitals and medical offices remain open for care and service, and we are continuing to monitor our operations as we work to restore all affected systems.”

MORE: What is CrowdStrike, the company linked to the global outage?

Businesses lose systems amid outage, frustrating customers

The world’s reliance on technology was highlighted as the outage brought down systems.

People are not holding back on social media, posting about any frustration or inconvenience.

For instance, mobile ordering an early morning cup of Starbucks coffee was not possible.

The company responded to a number of posts on X, acknowledging the issue and apologizing.

But of course, impacts go far beyond cold brew.

Down Detector reported issues with VISA, Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo, mainly surrounding their mobile apps.

Dr. Grant Kien with Cal State East Bay’s Communication Department says what’s astounding to most is realizing something so simple — an update, in this case — Could have such a profound ripple affect on our every day lives.

According to Kien, this is a reminder that technology fails. He says there are also many lessons to take from this — including beefing up back-ups.