Global computer outage leaves Nunavut largely unscathed

Some grocery stores across Nunavut reported being impacted, but otherwise Friday’s computer software outage that caused havoc across the world appears to have had less impact in Nunavut.

In Baker Lake, the Northern store was reduced to one till for a while on Friday, “due to issues with Microsoft,” the store’s social media account said.

What’s being called a global information technology outage is being blamed on the security software company CrowdStrike and an update to its Falcon Sensor software which runs on Microsoft Windows computers. The software is used to combat cyberattacks.

“The CrowdStrike global technology outage has had an impact on some of our stores, resulting in a temporary disruption in their ability to process sales,” Brent Smith, manager of communications and media for the North West Co., said in a message to Nunatsiaq News.

“We are working hard to restore service as quickly as possible for all of our valued customers,” he added.

Duane Wilson, vice-president communications for Arctic Co-operatives Ltd., said none of its Co-op stores’ core services were impacted, and only some of its secondary non-critical service providers, such as travel agents, had been affected.

The outage stretched across the planet late Thursday and into Friday, leaving some Microsoft Windows users seeing the “blue screen of death,” which appears when a computer using Windows technology crashes.

The Canadian Press reported services ranging from some health systems to airlines and border services were affected.

Canadian North’s system and operations were not affected by the outage, said Kelly Lewis, a senior advisor for the airline.

The company was monitoring the situation Friday and would provide updates as necessary, Lewis added.

A statement on the CrowdStrike website Friday afternoon indicated “the issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.” It said Mac and Linux systems were not affected, and “this was not a cyberattack.”

On Friday afternoon, the Government of Nunavut said in a statement that its services were unaffected by the outage.

It said that in Iqaluit, the Qikiqtani General Hospital’s operations and the Meditech electronic medical records software Nunavut uses “are fully operational with no issues reported.”

Some Government of Nunavut’s employees’ pay deposits were delayed, the government said.

“GN employees whose payroll deposits were delayed as a result of impacts on their banking services providers have now received payment.”

The government advised employees to contact their bank if problems persist.

Northwestel Inc.’s services were unaffected, said Catherine Newsome, marketing and communications director at the telecommunications provider.

Computer systems for the City of Iqaluit were not affected, said acting communications manager Geoffrey Byrne.

Qulliq Energy Corp. issued a statement Friday afternoon saying its “systems are not impacted or affected by the Crowdstrike and Microsoft global outage.”