UPDATED 8:03pm 7/19/2024:
Dear Oakland Community,
This morning we provided a public update regarding City of Oakland impacts stemming from the global computer outage Thursday evening prompted by a defective system update pushed out by the City’s cybersecurity software vendor, CrowdStrike. We are writing on Friday afternoon to provide an update as we head into the weekend.
As a reminder, at the time of the outage, our 911 call-takers continued to take your emergency calls and route them to emergency responders. Our 911 call lines remained open throughout this incident. Public safety computer systems have now largely been restored and both our police and fire departments are nearing full operations. We thank our emergency response team and the IT staff who prioritized this work. Please continue to report emergencies by dialing 9-1-1.
We have worked throughout the day Friday to identify and prioritize impacts to other City services. This work will continue into next week as City IT staff individually restore all affected computers and work stations.
- Several City facilities, including library branches, recreation centers, and the buildings at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza experienced individual computer outages.
- All City facilities typically open to the public on Fridays remained open.
- At Oakland Public Library branches, books could be checked out and public access to WiFi was functional. Internet and phone service were down at all branches. All OPL impacts were resolved as of Friday evening.
- Our Planning & Building Department (PBD) noted some slower processing earlier today; however, for the most part, PBD performance was not affected. All digital permitting processes were still able to move forward.
- Our summer programming at Oakland Parks Recreation & Youth Development facilities continued to operate throughout the day. However, the outage disrupted important service operations including participant registration, financial transactions, email access, and facility reservations.
- Summer free lunch programs at rec centers, library branches, and other locations proceeded as normal.
- Revenue offices were closed and not able to process in-person payments.
- The outages did affect some departments’ ability to process employee payroll, and these impacts were prioritized by ITD after the public safety restoration plan was fully engaged.
- All online systems remain functional so members of the community can continue to report crimes, pay or contest parking tickets, report illegal dumping to OAK311, apply for permits, and more, through www.oaklandca.gov.
We extend our deep appreciation for the ITD staff who worked through the night and will be working this weekend to further prioritize full restoration of all affected computers – they are highly dedicated and skilled professionals rising to the challenge to serve our community.
At this time we have not scheduled further updates, but we will monitor the situation closely and provide them if needed.
We thank you for your patience and support, and we remain grateful to serve our community.
Sincerely,
Your City of Oakland Team
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UPDATED 11:23am 7/19/2024
Dear Oakland Community,
Late Thursday evening, the City of Oakland was affected by a global computer outage prompted by a defective system update pushed out by the City’s cybersecurity software vendor, CrowdStrike. This was not the result of any attack or malicious activity. CrowdStrike is widely used in industries including airlines, banking, and government and unfortunately impacts have been reported worldwide. Here in Oakland, the primary impact has been to our employees’ computers, and we are well into the process of resolving those impacts.
At the time of the outage, our 911 call-takers continued to take your emergency calls and route them to emergency responders. Our 911 call lines remained open throughout this incident. Public safety computer systems have now largely been restored and both our police and fire departments are nearing full operations. We thank our emergency response team and the IT staff who prioritized this work. Please continue to report emergencies by dialing 9-1-1.
We are continuing this morning to evaluate all the impacts of this computer systems outage. In-person services and programs will continue today, including our summer meals programs and other activities. Online systems remain functional so you can continue to report crimes, pay or contest parking tickets, report illegal dumping to OAK311, apply for permits, and more, through www.oaklandca.gov. Staff at our service counters are working to report any computer issues they are experiencing and will do their best to help you, but we thank you for your patience as they are implementing work-around solutions and working with our IT team to restore their computers.
We will provide additional updates as we make progress to resolve this issue and continue to provide you with quality public services.
In thanks and service,
Your City of Oakland Team