HINESVILLE, Ga. — A major data center failure affecting cooling infrastructure at an unidentified core processor has disrupted account access and other services at credit unions across the country, with some institutions reporting they have been unable to access member account information for more than a day.
Multiple sources have indicated the outage is at Indiana-based Sharetec.
GeoVista Credit Union in Georgia said Wednesday the widespread outage was caused by a cooling system failure at its core processor’s primary data center that caused temperatures to rise rapidly and damaged critical storage and network equipment.
“This is not a localized GeoVista Credit Union outage,” GeoVista said in a statement provided to WTOC-TV. “Credit unions like ours across the country that use the same core processor are being affected by a larger data center failure.”
Outage Began Tuesday
Evidence from affected credit unions indicates the disruption began around midday Tuesday.
Flagship Community Federal Credit Union in Michigan posted a notice saying that as of noon Sept. 15, its core processor had encountered an outage affecting several credit unions using its systems. The credit union said the processor was working to resolve the problem.
Fortress Federal Credit Union in Indiana said Wednesday morning that its core processor had suffered a “major system outage” that began Tuesday and remained unresolved.
The outage left Fortress without access to member account information and knocked out home banking. The credit union said debit cards remained operational but were subject to a $100 maximum.
CGR Credit Union in Georgia also reported Wednesday that it was among credit unions nationwide affected by the same data center failure.
CGR said its core processor had confirmed that the primary data center’s cooling system failed, causing temperatures to increase rapidly and damaging storage and network equipment.
No Cyberattack or Data Breach Reported
Affected credit unions stressed that the disruption is an infrastructure failure and not a cybersecurity incident.
GeoVista said there has been no data breach or unauthorized access to member information. CGR issued a similar statement, describing the incident as a service-availability problem rather than a cybersecurity event. Fortress said it had received no indication of a security breach and described the problem as an infrastructure issue at the data storage facility.
The outage has not affected every service in the same way at every credit union.
GeoVista told WTOC that debit card transactions continued to operate despite problems with other services. Fortress, however, said its debit cards were operating with a $100 maximum while its home banking system was unavailable.
At GeoVista, the outage also affected branch transactions. A member told WTOC he attempted to withdraw money inside a branch Tuesday but employees were unable to complete the transaction because the system was unavailable.
Systems Being Restored in Phases
GeoVista and CGR said teams from the core processor, the data center provider and hardware vendors were working to restore systems.
The recovery is being conducted in phases, with systems for individual credit unions being validated before they are returned to service, according to the institutions.
That process could mean service returns at different times for different credit unions using the processor.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, GeoVista and CGR said they had not been provided a confirmed time for full restoration. Fortress similarly said Wednesday morning that it had no estimated restoration time.
The full scope of the outage, including the total number of credit unions and members affected, remained unclear.
Notices to Members
The CU Daily found public notices confirming disruptions at GeoVista Credit Union, CGR Credit Union, Flagship Community Federal Credit Union and Fortress Federal Credit Union. The statements indicate additional credit unions are affected, but the processor involved has not publicly identified itself and the affected institutions reviewed by The CU Daily have not named it.
The incident highlights the reliance of credit unions and other financial institutions on core processors, which provide the back-end systems used to maintain account records and process transactions and other daily banking activity.
GeoVista said it would continue providing members with updates as additional information becomes available.
