ANNAPOLIS, Md. — On Friday, July 19, Microsoft experienced a massive IT outage caused by issues with its update to CrowdStrike. The Office of the Comptroller became aware of that outage in the early morning hours as a result of alerts that several of the agency’s IT systems were offline.
Comptroller Brooke Lierman assured taxpayers that no taxpayer information or data was affected by Microsoft’s CrowdStrike outage that affected systems worldwide.
“This was not a cyber security attack or a breach,” Comptroller Lierman said. “No data was compromised or at risk during the event. By 11 a.m., all production services were restored and no taxpayer information or agency data were compromised by this event.”
At 1 a.m. Friday, the Comptroller said the agency’s monitoring system alerted that several assets were offline. She said the agency’s Information Technology Division began addressing the issues and worked manually to bring those assets back online online as quickly as possible.
“We also established four repair sites to provide in-person support to our staff,” the Comptroller said. “In all, we were able to repair the devices of approximately 500 impacted employees who who took their devices to one of four office locations to have them repaired quickly.”
Most systems were restored and operational by 11 a.m. and most users were back online by 2 p.m. All systems have now been restored, and no taxpayer information or agency data were compromised by this morning’s outage.
The agency’s IT Division will continue to monitor the situation.
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