CROWDSTRIKE OUTAGE: IT chaos affecting major businesses could last days

The ongoing impact of a crippling IT outage might be felt for days after major Australian and global businesses and institutions went offline, causing widespread chaos.

The federal government activated a National Coordination Mechanism meeting on Friday night which also involved state and territory representatives and cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, whose software update had gone awry.

The “unfolding outage” started about 3.30pm on Friday after Telstra services were affected by a problem with Microsoft and CrowdStrike software.

There was no evidence the outage was the result of a cyber-security incident but rather a technical issue caused by an update, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said.

“(CrowdStrike) have issued a fix for this, allowing affected companies and organisations to reboot their systems without the problem,” Ms O’Neil said.

“The company has informed us that most issues should be resolved through the fix they have provided but given the size and nature of this incident it may take some time to resolve.”

The incident was not security related or a cyberattack but a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts, CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz said.

“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” he said in a statement.

“This outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies.

“As the cyber security coordinator has said, there is no information to suggest this is a cyber security incident and they are continuing to engage across key stakeholders.”

Crowd-sourced website Downdetector has listed Telstra, Microsoft, Google, Foxtel, National Australia Bank, ABC, Uber, ANZ, and Bendigo Bank as suffering outages.

But Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar, police across much of the country and the federal and NSW governments were hit, as well as point-of-sale machines at shops, including Coles and Woolworths.

Flight screens at Sydney Airport and other airports across the country were blank for some time with passengers warned of delays.

While they started working again about 5.30pm, many passengers were unable to board flights with Jetstar reportedly experiencing ongoing problems.

Flights across the country have been cancelled.

A Virgin Australia spokeswoman said some of its services were likely to be cancelled and others delayed but later added that the airline’s operations remained stable following the impacts.

“We are working to resolve any delays and get our guests on their way as quickly as possible,” she said.

The outage spread globally, with companies around the world reporting issues and overseas airlines forced to cancel flights after systems crashed.

In Australia, many media organisations have been impacted.

“The ABC is experiencing a major network outage, along with several other media outlets,” it said in a news story.

Nine and Sky News said its news bulletins were affected.

Even footy fans were being hit, with AFL club Essendon warning them to bring physical tickets so they could get into Marvel Stadium on Friday night.

The Australian National Relay Service confirmed it was working to restore services but said it was able to make triple-zero calls.

“We understand the global Microsoft outage, which is affecting many government and business services, is the cause of the National Relay Service outage,” a spokesman said.

The NSW government said a Microsoft outage was affecting a range of services including police urging the public only to use triple-zero in an emergency.

Victoria Police said some internal systems had been affected but it was not impacting its ability to dispatch or respond to incidents.

Microsoft said it was working to fix issues with its apps and services.

“We’re investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services”, the tweet posted on the social media platform X.