Australian companies and services are struggling with knock-on effects from an unprecedented global IT outage caused by a simple software update.
Banks, media outlets, airports, supermarkets, retailers, government services and even hospitals were left scrambling by the outage that hit just after 2:30pm on Friday.
It was later confirmed the outage was a result of major cyber security firm CrowdStrike deploying a software update with a defect, not a malicious cyber attack.
“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” CrowdStrike said in a statement on Saturday.
“We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption.”
The tech firm said it was working with all its customers to ensure they are back up and running after being felled for hours on Friday.
While the cause of the outage may be fixed, companies are battling the follow-on impacts of the major tech incident.
Numerous flights were cancelled around the country on Friday night with hundreds of people left stranded at airports.
But airports are reassuring customers things are back on track with minor delays.
“Airport systems are online and operations are normal, however there are some knock on impacts to individual airlines,” Sydney Airport said in a statement.
“Anyone travelling today should check with their airline regarding the status of their flight.”
It is understood Jetstar was one of the most affected airlines with more than 150 flights cancelled overnight.
Delays are expected again on Saturday as customers take alternative flights but the airline gave a reassurance that operations are returning to normal.
Melbourne Airport issued a similar statement, warning of congestion at the site due to cancelled or delayed flights overnight.
“All airlines are online and can check in passengers,” it said.
Other services impacted on Friday like supermarkets where shoppers were forced to abandon trolleys full of goods are back online.
Crowd-sourced website Downdetector listed services like Telstra, Microsoft, Google, National Australia Bank, ABC, Uber, ANZ, and Aldi are back up and running.
There was no impact to triple zero calls or services during the outage, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed on Friday night.
With operations returning to normal and news it was a software issue rather than malicious cyber attack, many breathed a sigh of relief.
But it raised concerns about the soft and exposed belly of the Australia and global IT systems.
“It just shows we live in a highly connected software-enabled, so digitally connected world,” Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre CEO Rachael Falk told ABC Breakfast.
“It’s incredibly vulnerable when something goes down.”
Falk said it should be a wake-up call for businesses and governments around the world, as if it had been a cyber attack, the impacts would have been catastrophic.
“I think it shows that one system can bring down so many other organisations,” she said.
Other cyber security experts called the outage “the worst thing” that could have happened given the unprecedented scale.
“This is more serious than a cyberattack because it shows our systems aren’t even proofed against randomness,” cybercrime professor Richard Buckland, from UNSW’s School of Computer Science and Engineering, said.
The financial costs are expected to be tallied by economists over the weekend as they estimate the money lost to businesses.
– AAP
