For some Illinois motorists, a trip to get their driver’s licenses renewed got even worse on Thursday — thanks to “a nationwide network outage.”
Driver services facilities in Illinois and nationwide were affected by the outage for nearly three hours Thursday morning, the Illinois Secretary of State’s office announced.
Systems that complete driver’s license transactions went down at 8:50 a.m., but were back online at 11:30 a.m. On-site driving tests and vehicle registration services were not affected, according to Secretary of State spokesperson Max Walczyk.
The outage is believed to be the result of a “connectivity issue,” not a cyber attack, he said.
The outage occurred in a network managed by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators used by drivers license facilities across the country, Walczyk said. A data search tool used to verify people’s eligibility for a license and “other critical functions” was down as a result, causing facilities to be unable to verify drivers’ information.
Appointments affected by the morning outage have been rescheduled, Walczyk said.
Shortly after 10 a.m., Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said all facilities “across the country” were down in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“We are currently experiencing a nationwide network outage at our DMV facilities,” Giannoulias wrote in the post.
