Yahoo Finance Major IT outage hits raft of Aussie companies including banks, supermarkets
A widespread outage is affecting companies across the country.
A major IT outage is bringing down a raft of Aussie businesses, including banks, supermarkets, media outlets and other major companies. The outage appears to be linked to cybersecurity company Crowdstrike.
There have been widespread reports of Windows computers showing blue screen of death (BSOD) errors starting from around 3pm on Friday. Meanwhile, photos from supermarket Woolworths show self-serve checkouts with the same blue screen.
Downdetector, which shows crowdsourced reports of outages, shows numerous banks including Commonwealth Bank, NAB, Westpac, ANZ, Bendigo Bank and Suncorp Bank are experiencing outages.
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The ABC, along with several other media outlets such as Sky News and Network 10, have also had their computer systems impacted by the outage.
“A major worldwide tech outage, believed to have been caused by a flawed anti-viral update from US cyber security company CrowdStrike, has plunged many of the world’s largest companies into crisis and prevented Australian newsrooms from publishing the news,” Sky News Australia wrote on X.
Major companies such as Qantas, with some flights reportedly delayed.
90% of my local Woolworths registers had the #BSOD. Queues a mile long, absolute chaos. National outage? Local? pic.twitter.com/IuztPMfaQw
— BYoung 🇦🇺 (@MrBMYoung) July 19, 2024
Photos from supermarkets show the self-serve check-outs with the same blue screen affecting windows computers nationwide, with workers manually checking-out shoppers.
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 said it was aware of crash reports related to the "Falcon sensor"
"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," a statement on its website 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 information to suggest the outage was a hack or cyber security incident.
"Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies," she said on X.
The outage appears to be larger than just Australia.
More to come.
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