Hundreds or potentially thousands of companies across Australia and the rest of the world have been hit by a massive IT outage.
So what caused the outage, how long is it going to last, and who has been affected?
This is what we know.
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What happened and what caused the outage?
It’s very early days and we’re still figuring out exactly what happened. However, it appears the outage was caused by an issue with global cybersecurity company Crowdstrike and its Falcon service, which had a flow-on effect to Microsoft systems.
“The global IT outage appears to have been caused by an issue with the CrowdStrike antivirus software,” Professor Salil Kanhere from UNSW said.
“It appears to have impacted Windows machines with this software installed, causing them to crash (blue screen error) and get stuck in boot loops.
“An update to their software appears to have been rolled out globally without proper testing…
“This incident appears to violate every good software engineering practice we know. It also points to the need for mechanisms that can protect a computer’s operating system from potentially misbehaving anti-virus software.”
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Thankfully, the issue doesn’t appear to have been the result of a hack.
The issue caused many Windows users to get locked into BSOD (blue screen of death) cycles, with the same problem hitting the likes of self-service checkouts at supermarkets, airport check-in screens, ordering terminals at fast food restaurants, and media broadcasting systems.
The issue began in Australia at about 3pm (AEST), but a Microsoft outage believed to be linked to the wider problems occurred about six hours earlier. That brought low-cost US carrier Frontier Airlines and some competitors to a standstill for hours.
What happens next?
In the short term, all the organisations impacted by the outage are waiting for Crowdstrike and Microsoft to implement a fix.
“Both CrowdStrike and Microsoft are working to address the issue and prevent similar occurrences,” Graeme Hughes from Griffith University said.
While it appears CrowdStrike has developed a fix for the issue, and services are gradually coming back online, how long it will take for everything to be fully resolved is a mystery.
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In the long-term, though, experts say that the outage should act as a wake-up call for businesses and governments.
“This crisis calls for immediate collaborative action to enhance resilience through robust safeguards and fail-safes, especially in life-critical networks,” the University of Sydney’s Dr Shumi Akhtar said.
“As we increasingly pivot to a future dominated by digital and AI innovations, this outage is a resounding wake-up call: we must fortify our digital bastions to safeguard against such catastrophic interruptions, ensuring our readiness and security in an interconnected era.”
From an Australian perspective, it highlights our reliance on overseas IT providers.
“In Australia, many businesses and organisations have found that their software systems have failed due to the software system outage,” Dr Mark Gregory from RMIT University said.
“The reliance on centrally managed global software solutions can lead to significant security risks.
Australian governments have, for too long, acquiesced to companies that store Australian data overseas and manage critical systems from global headquarters out of Australian jurisdictions.”
Are triple zero, ambulances, hospitals and other healthcare services impacted?
In Australia at least, it appears healthcare systems have largely avoided the impacts of the outage.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the nation’s critical infrastructure and triple zero services are unaffected.
“There is no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or triple zero services at this stage,” he said.
“The National Coordination Mechanism has been activated.”
Telstra also confirmed triple zero centres are still working.
“There’s no impact to calls to our triple zero call centres or our fixed and mobile network,” the telco said.
Similarly, NSW Health says its systems are unaffected, and Ambulance Victoria is okay too.
What sites and companies are impacted?
The list of businesses impacted by the outage in Australia is long and wide-ranging.
It includes supermarkets Coles and Woolworths, while there was chaos at airports including Sydney and Melbourne with Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin all affected.
Many media companies have also been hit, including 9News, the ABC, SBS and Sky News.
So have fast-food restaurants like KFC, and a range of banks including Bendigo, Commonwealth, and NAB.
Some other companies we know have been affected include Service NSW, Dan Murphy’s, Xero, TAB and 13Cabs.
Overseas, the impacts are widespread, with the likes of the London Stock Exchange, Berlin Airport, and Microsoft 365 all experiencing serious issues.
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