Major IT outage across Australia brings down businesses (msn.com)
Major IT outage across Australia brings down businesses
Story by David Swan, Eryk Bagshaw • 33min
A widespread CrowdStrike outage has brought down Microsoft systems worldwide on Friday afternoon, affecting banks, supermarkets, telecommunications and airports.
The ongoing widespread outage is reportedly related to US-based cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike. Its ‘Falcon sensor’ is installed on many business computers to gather security data.
“CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows hosts related to the Falcon sensor,” the company said in a statement on its website.
“Symptoms include hosts experiencing a bugcheck\blue screen error related to the Falcon sensor. Our engineering teams are actively working to resolve this issue and there is no need to open a support ticket.
“Status updates will be posted below [on the website] as we have more information to share, including when the issue is resolved.”
Services affected worldwide
Payment systems have been impacted around the world with customers unable to use Apple Pay to pay for goods and services.
Customers at Coles and Woolworths have reported not being able to tap their cards at terminals. EFTPOS appears to be working at some outlets.
Betting systems have also been suspended including at TAB in Australia.
ANZ’s internet banking also reported an “industry-wide issue” affecting the processing of some payments, but traditional transfers via BSB and bank account numbers are not impacted.
Telco giant Telstra confirms some of its systems are being impacted by the outage.
“Like a number of other organisations, global issues affecting CrowdStrike and Microsoft are disrupting some of our systems,” a spokesman said.
“The issue is causing some holdups for some of our customers, and we thank them for their patience.
“There is no impact to our fixed or mobile network which continue to operate.”
Several NSW Police systems have gone down, restricting the ability of police to disseminate information, but the triple zero service remains operational.
A NSW Police spokesperson urged the public to only contact triple zero in an emergency. NSW Police will provide an update shortly on what systems have been impacted.
Victoria Police says its triple zero emergency number and online reporting remain operational. “We’ll keep you updated if anything changes,” a spokesman said.