A widespread Microsoft outage has thrown Maryland's healthcare and judicial systems into disarray, leading to the cancellation of non-urgent medical procedures and the closure of courts to the public, barring emergencies. According to reports from WMAR-2 News, hospitals like Sinai, Northwest, and Carroll, operating under LifeBridge Health, have set up command centers to navigate the IT crisis, rescheduling non-crucial surgeries and grappling to support affiliated physician practices in the face of these challenges.
Meanwhile, the statewide impact is evident as the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) informed WMAR-2 News about their downtime procedures that have been enacted to ascertain orderly operations and patient safety, while also MedStar asserts their operational normalcy and Johns Hopkins Medicine's status remains unreported.
Governor Wes Moore provided some reassurance in a public statement, highlighting the resilience of critical emergency infrastructure: "Our 9-1-1 networks and first responder systems have remained resilient, and we continue to monitor all systems to ensure they are running at full capacity," he ensured, as detailed by WMAR-2 News.
The cyber disruption stems from a defect in CrowdStrike antivirus software, a vendor for Microsoft's Windows devices, which has been acknowledged and is being rectified, according to CBS News, Microsoft has addressed the issue in a social statement stating, "The underlying cause has been fixed, however, residual impact is continuing to affect some Microsoft 365 apps and services," and has pledged additional mitigations efforts.
