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The United States Postal Service said delivery of mail and packages had not been affected by the incident.
“The postal service was not directly impacted by the global IT outage,” Public Relations Director David Walton said in an email to The Epoch Times.
“We are aware of impacts to some of our third-party vendors, however, this has not impacted our ability to move mail and packages for the American people.”
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said it is monitoring the widespread IT outages and warned of bad actors seeking to take advantage of the situation.
“Of note, CISA has observed threat actors taking advantage of this incident for phishing and other malicious activity,” the agency said in a notice.
“CISA urges organizations and individuals to remain vigilant and only follow instructions from legitimate sources.
The White House said on Friday afternoon that President Biden continues to receive updates on the CrowdStrike global tech outage.
“The White House is in regular contact with CrowdStrike’s executive leadership and tracking progress on remediating affected systems,” a senior administration official said.
“We have offered U.S. government support. Our understanding is that this is not a cyber attack, but rather a faulty technical update.”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler on Friday morning declared a citywide state of emergency due to the outage, noting that city service systems and employee computers have been impacted by the tech outage.
“City services that rely on Microsoft Operating Systems using Crowdstrike Endpoint Protection—including certain essential City service providers—are impacted by the problem including emergency communications,” Mr. Wheeler’s office said in a declaration.
The declaration will allow the city to respond by using what it called a “Unified Command” system appointed by the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, according to the order.
As of noon Eastern Time, the total number of global flight delays due to the worldwide tech outage reached more than 30,000, according to the world’s largest flight tracking and data platform FlightAware.
Total delays involving the United States today totaled 5,944 with another 2,098 cancellations.
Delta, American Airlines and United Airlines accounted for the top three airlines in terms of cancellations—while Chinese, Indian and United Kingdom airlines represented the top three flight operations for delays.
According to staff at a JPMorgan Chase bank branch in Washington, the outage initially affected the ATMs. But they're back on, he said. However, the teller line is still experiencing some troubles, he added, affecting clients' ability to do deposits, withdrawals, check cashing, and other related transactions.
Social Security offices across the United States are closed to the public on Friday, due to the global IT outage, the agency announced on X.
“Some online services are unavailable and you can expect longer wait times on [the] national 800 number,” the agency said. “We appreciate your patience while we work to restore services.”
Shares of CrowdStrike Holdings fell sharply on Friday after the company's software update caused global IT outages, disrupting the operations of many sectors including airlines, hospitals, and energy. The company’s shares plummeted nearly 15 percent in pre-market trading following the outage.
CrowdStrike is an American cybersecurity technology company based in Austin, Texas. It was co-founded by George Kurtz (CEO), Dmitri Alperovitch, and Gregg Marston in 2011.
The company creates software to assist businesses in detecting and blocking cyber attacks. Many Fortune 500 companies use CrowdStrike, including major banks, healthcare and energy companies.
FedEx and UPS are warning customers of potential delivery delays due to the global IT outage.
FedEx said in a statement on their website they had activated contingency plans to “mitigate impacts” caused by the global outage, adding potential delays are possible for package deliveries with a commitment of July 19 delivery.
UPS said they are operating and delivering in all areas but there is a potential for delivery delays, adding they have also put contingency plans in place to “help ensure that shipments arrive at their final destinations as quickly as possible.”
Thousands of flights have been affected by the global IT outage, according to the world’s largest flight tracking and data platform FlightAware.
The total number of delays reported on FlightAware so far due to the outage is over 26,300 flights globally.
Total delays within, into or out of the United States today total 4,180 with another 1,622 cancellations of flights within, into or out of the United States Friday.
Emergency lines have gone down in several states due to the tech CrowdStrike outage.
The U.S. Emergency Alerts System said Friday that a number of 911 lines in multiple states were down, while the Alaska State Troopers confirmed in a post on Facebook that 911 and non-emergency call services were down amid the outage. Emergency services in Ohio and New Hampshire have posted similar messages on Friday.
"Due to a nationwide technology-related outage, many 911 and non-emergency call centers are not working correctly across the State of Alaska," Alaska State Troopers wrote in a post.
White House said on Friday morning that the president has been briefed on the CrowdStrike outage and his team is in touch with the firm and impacted entities.
“His team is engaged across the interagency to get sector by sector updates throughout the day and is standing by to provide assistance as needed,” the White House stated.
The President was also briefed on the drone attack overnight in Tel Aviv.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Friday it is working with Microsoft and CrowdStrike as well as local officials to deal with system outages worldwide.
While providing few details, the agency said its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is working with "federal, state, local and critical infrastructure partners to fully assess and address system outages."
In a statement to news outlets on Friday, the White House's National Security Council added that it is "looking into" the disruption, which has impacted businesses, hospitals, and airlines worldwide.
A massive internet outage on July 19 caused IT issues for major global institutions, grounding flights, disrupting banks' apps, knocking media outlets off the air, and even affecting supermarkets' computer systems.
The issue was caused by a defect in a Windows software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, the company confirmed.
Airports in the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom all reported problems with their IT systems.
In the UK, major broadcaster Sky News was knocked off air due to the outage.
A Sky News spokesperson said, “Sky News has not been able to broadcast live TV this morning, we apologise for the interruption. All the news is still available online, on the Sky News app, website, and across our social media accounts. We are working hard to restore all services.”