Multiple computer systems, including those used for transportation, courts, and some of the state’s hospital systems and local governments, were back online Friday afternoon after a global technology outage disrupted internet and computer traffic throughout the day.

Gov. Wes Moore said the administration would continue to monitor the impact of the outages across the state.

“We are already seeing many impacted systems come back online, and we will continue to provide guidance, coordination, resources, and support to our partners until this issue is fully resolved,” Moore said.

Maryland mobilized its state emergency operations center Friday morning and declared a “partial” activation level, signaling the incident required significant monitoring or resources. The Maryland Department of Emergency Management also organized a call with emergency managers from every jurisdiction in the state, said Jorge Castillo, a spokesperson for the department.

Information technology specialists evaluated the systems and worked to restore them.

State Comptroller Brook Lierman, in a Friday evening statement, said the agency’s office was restored, and no taxpayer information or data were compromised by outage. Most systems were restored and operational around midday.

“This was not a cyber security attack or a breach,” Lierman said.

Here’s the latest on the disruptions due to the outage:

Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport

Several major airlines including United, American, Delta and Allegiant were grounded thanks to the outage. Long lines formed inside BWI airport Friday morning as travelers waited for updates on their flights. Staff handed out bottles of water to people while the Maryland Transportation Authority Police and BWI Fire and Rescue stood ready to assist with any passenger emergencies.

John Thompson had already boarded the Spirit plane for a 6 a.m. departure when the crew said it wasn’t sure when the flight would be able to take off. After the 40-year-old got off the plane, he waited among a crowd of people for instructions to book a new flight.

“I’m pissed,” Thompson said about how long it was taking to rebook.

Agents for Spirit could be seen writing out boarding passes by hand later Friday morning.

BWI officials confirmed some airline ticketing systems were not working. Conditions in the airport were improving late Friday and airport administrators said they were in close contact with local airline station management.

Customers were advised to check for updates on their specific airlines apps and websites before heading to BWI Friday. Southwest, which accounts for about 70% of BWI’s traffic, was largely unaffected, officials said.

The Transportation Security Administration was not affected by the outage, officials said on social media.

Maryland courts

All Maryland courts, offices and facilities are closed to the public on Friday due to the Microsoft outage but will remain open for emergency matters. All clerks’ offices are also closed, according to a notice from the Maryland Judiciary.

911

State emergency medical officials say the 911 telephone systems across the state were never down, and callers shouldn’t have noticed any issues.

Some operators, however, were using manual procedures to provide assistance as the electronic systems were restored. And for a time, operators also were manually logging patient information from emergency responders in the field on cards and calling it into hospitals, but the electronic system called eMEDS is back online.

Maryland hospitals

Hospitals across the state saw disruptions health care partners had varying degrees of technical issues related to the outages. Some opted to cancel elective procedures, said Maryland Hospital Association President and CEO Melony G. Griffith.

Reported problems of accessing electronic health records at hospitals, transcription services, prescription and other cloud-hosted software systems loomed large. Many business systems such as budgeting and care coordination were also affected, Griffith said.

Some hospital functions had reverted back to pen and paper Friday morning, according to Castillo.

The University of Maryland Medical System, which includes about a dozen hospitals, urgent care centers and doctors’ offices, confirmed each member organization had implemented downtime procedures to ensure orderly operations and patient safety.

During IT failures, as well as cyberattacks and power outages, hospitals use downtime procedures to work around limited access to electronic health records and other electronic systems.

All UMMS member organizations have started to transition away from downtime procedures to normal operation during the recovery from the outage, according to a statement. The system anticipates full recovery will take a few days but will remain open to care for patient needs at this time.

Johns Hopkins Medicine facilities were open and providing patient care with minimal impact to their technology functions. Hopkins medical centers had emergency preparedness protocols in place, including downtime procedures, that ensured the health system-maintained continuity their operations, according to a statement.

LifeBridge Health had been making progress after throughout the day after activated a command center to manage the outage, which affected computers at various levels across the health system, said spokesperson Sharon Boston.

“Information Services teams are bringing computers back online with prioritization to systems related to patient care, with guidance from our hospital command centers,” Boston said in an afternoon statement.

Sinai Hospital, Northwest Hospital and Carroll Hospital also opened command centers, and Sinai Hospital activated downtime procedures and rescheduled nonurgent procedures and surgeries.

Officials were also working with LifeBridge Health Medical Group to support physician practices, Boston said.

GBMC spokesperson Krystina Wales confirmed the health care system was affected by the software failure. By early afternoon, the system was able to suspend downtime procedures and transition back to normal documentation procedures. Officials said they continue to monitor the situation and adapt accordingly.

Ascension Saint Agnes, in Baltimore, does not use software linked to the outage for systems they own and operate. However, for some third-parties’ systems the hospital works with that have been affected, normal downtime procedures are in place until systems are brought back online, it said in a statement.

Amtrak’s Northeast Region

An Amtrak spokesperson said the outage did not disrupt train operations Friday.

The company earlier in the morning reported issues with its website due to the outage. A tweet from Amtrak’s Northeast regional office said it was unable to accept credit card payments but that Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal were being accepted.

E-ZPass

MDTA warned customers that transactions could take longer to process at DriveEzMD Customer Service Centers, said department representative John Sales in an email.

Washington, D.C. Metro

The Washington, D.C. Metro also posted on social media that their websites and internal systems were down. All Metrorail stations opened on time and service ran as scheduled, officials said later.

Local government

Counties across Maryland also reported problems caused by the outage. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said early in the day that the city was spared any problems from the outages. The city’s systems and applications do not use CrowdStrike products, he said on social media.

Scott later said the city’s internet provider had developed an outage Friday afternoon, but internet services have since been restored. The mayor cited physical fiber cuts as the root cause — unrelated to global outages.

“We may experience periodic gaps in service until fiber repairs are complete [and] stable,” Scott said in an evening social media post. The outage is not affecting police response.

Baltimore County officials on social media said its 911, emergency services and core county services remained operational. The Carroll County government warned residents that tax payment services, permitting and other sites online may not be functional.

Howard County officials said they were affected by the outage and worked to restore critical systems first, including 911 operations centers and financial systems. The county employed additional resources to assist employees facing disruptions due to the outage, said Brandee Ganz, chief administrative officer for Howard County.

“I am so proud of the efficiency, expertise, and professionalism that our government displayed to minimize any disruptions to our services and operations,” Ganz said.

The impact to Anne Arundel County government operations was minimal, though officials said they were seeing some issues with processing reservations for campsites and other recreational activities.

Businesses

A note taped Friday inside the glass doors of the Starbucks warned Fells Point patrons and passersby that only cash was being accepted “due to the nationwide Microsoft outages.” Employees at another Starbucks in Mount Vernon couldn’t view mobile or delivery orders — even as drivers were arriving to pick up the unmade orders, said staffer Skye Boyd.

The problems were similar to those described in national reports about the company, which is facing issues because of the tech outage.

Microsoft issue fixed but disruption continues

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack, according to The Associated Press.

The issue affected Microsoft 365 apps and services, and escalating disruptions continued hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing it.

The website Downdetector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta.

Microsoft 365 posted on X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”

The company did not respond to a request for comment. It did not explain the cause of the outage further.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz posted on social media platform X that the company “is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”

He said: “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

Baltimore Banner reporters Jess Nocera, Royale Bonds, Christina Tkacik and Pamela Wood contributed to this report. Associated Press reporters Charlotte Graham-McLay and Elaine Kurtenbach also contributed to this report.