Massive outage hits companies around the world

Australians could see the effects of a global tech outage that impacted supermarkets, banks and airlines for days to come, as the company responsible shared new details on what went wrong. 

About 3pm on Friday, computers across the country began shutting down with multiple workers reporting issues at multiple different businesses.

The issue comes from a “bluescreen error” which is a result of a Crowdstrike outage, with servers and devices getting stuck in “boot loops”. A statement from Crowdstrike revealed the issue was caused by “a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts” and that a fix had been deployed. 

The IT issue has affected multiple countries including New Zealand, Japan, India, the US and the United Kingdom. Multiple businesses have been affected including media organisations such as News Corp’s global operations, the ABC, SBS, Channel 7, Channel 9, and Network 10.

But it has also hit EFTPOS services, airlines, banks and supermarkets, throwing the entire nation into chaos.

It is also affecting multiple major institutions, with crowd-sourced website Downdetector listing outages for Foxtel, NAB, Bendigo Bank, Suncorp Bank, Commonwealth Bank, Me Bank and more.

A government spokesperson confirmed a meeting of the National Emergency Mechanism had been called just before 6pm AEST, where government and industry leaders were briefed on the situation by Crowdstrike. 

Deputy secretary of the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Centre, Hamish Hansford, said in a video shared after the meeting that Crowdstrike was working on the fix but that it could be “days” before all the damage is undone.

“Over the next hours and days, we hope that this incident will self-resolve as technical responses kick in. There is no reason to panic, it is not a cybersecurity incident.” 

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil also attended the meeting which she said was joined by CrowdStrike, which confirmed there was no evidence the outage was a cyber-security incident.

“This is a technical issue, caused by a Crowdstrike update to its customers,” Ms O’Neil said.

“They have issued a fix for this, allowing affected companies and organisations to reboot their systems without the problem.

“CrowdStrike has informed the federal government that most issues should be resolved through the fix, but given the size and nature it may take “some time” to resolve.

“Governments are closely engaged at all levels, focused on bringing together the affected parties and ensuring government entities institute the fix as quickly as possible,” she said.

Crowdstrike has confirmed the outage is a result of a planned upgrade for Microsoft, and has flagged it may be able to come to a solution shortly.

The Prime Minister has issued a statement, saying he understands Australians are “concerned about the outage that is unfolding globally and affecting a wide range of services”.

“My Government is working closely with the National Cyber Security Coordinator,” Anthony Albanese said.

“There is no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or Triple-0 services at this stage.

“The National Coordination Mechanism has been activated and is meeting now.”

The outage is also affecting multiple major institutions, with crowd-sourced website Downdetector listing outages for Foxtel, NAB, Bendigo Bank, Suncorp Bank, Commonwealth Bank, Me Bank and more.

Computer systems have crashed, with machines continually restarting.

Jetstar revealed on Friday that it was caught in the global computer meltdown.

“Jetstar is currently impacted by a global software issue that’s impacting airlines and other businesses around the world,” the company said.

“We recommend customers check the status of their flights before departing for the airport.

“We’re working with our providers to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”

Qantas was forced to delay some flights on Friday evening because of the issue but were still flying.

The airline was working with its suppliers to fix the issue as quickly as possible but there was no timeline on resolving the problems.

Some passengers had already missed connecting flights while the problems were also expected to hit people planning to fly to Paris for the Olympic Games.

Major banks were reporting issues with Pay ID transfers but payments could still be made by entering BSB and account numbers.

NAB and Unloan apps were still working on users mobile phone applications on Friday evening.

There are also reports point-of-sales systems are being affected, with some people taking to Twitter to report Coles’ self-serve Eftpos machines weren’t working.

Another user took to X to say it was “mayhem at Woolworths” when the outages started.

Photos from supermarkets show the self-serve check-outs with the same blue screen affecting Windows computers nationwide, with workers manually checking-out shoppers.

A Woolworths spokesperson said all stores across the country except for six are open and trading.”

In some cases, customers may find less registers available than normal so we’re grateful for their patience,” the spokesperson said.

“A small number of online orders have been unable to be fulfilled and those customers have been contacted. 

“We’d also like to thank the thousands of team members who have helped customers throughout the afternoon and evening.”

The outage is also affecting the public service, with customers having to be turned away at Services NSW.

Workers for government departments have also been booted out of their devices, with many unable to access Microsoft Teams.

A spokesperson for the NSW Government said it was aware of the outage.

“Departments are activating business continuity plans to ensure ongoing service,” the statement said.

The blue screen on Microsoft software reads: “Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart.”

“We’re just collecting some error info and then we’ll restart for you”. 

Crowdstrike issued a statement to its website shortly after 4pm AEST, saying the crashes are related to the “Falcon sensor”.

The Falcon sensor is installed on business computers to gather security data.

“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,” the statement said.

“Status updates will be posted below as we have more information to share.”

National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness has said there was no evidence to suggest the outage is a hack or cybersecurity incident.

“I am aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across Australia this afternoon,” she wrote on X.

“Our current information is that this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies.”

She said she continued to engage with key stakeholders.

Anyone needing emergency services will still be able to contact Triple 0, but NSW Police systems have gone down.

This means they are having issues with sharing information and will continue to update on what has been impacted.

Victoria Police reported fully functional online-reporting systems and Triple 0 emergency line.

Telecommunication giant Telstra has been impacted by the outage, with a spokesman confirming some of its systems had been disrupted.

“The issue is causing some hold-ups for some of our customers and we thank them for their patience,” the spokesman said.

“There is no impact to our fixed or mobile network.”

Betting systems have also been suspended, with TAB currently offline.

A spokesperson from the Australian Government confirmed it was working closely with the National Cyber Security Coordinator on the “unfolding outage”. 

“We understand Triple-0 services are currently not affected by this outage,” the statement said.

“The information as it stands is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies.”

The spokesperson said there was no information to suggest it was a cyber security incident and the government was continuing to engage key stakeholders.

“The National Emergency Mechanism group will meet shortly, co-chaired by the National Emergency Management Agency,” the spokesperson said.

More to come