AceBreakingNews – UPDATE – There are reports of IT outages affecting major institutions in Australia and internationally, potentially one of the biggest global outages ever experienced.

Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Jul.19: 2024: ABC AU News Report: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/YouMeUs2 

Follow live: IT systems outage causes havoc across the globe

@acenewsservices

Outages were recorded in the US and New Zealand before the Australia-wide shutdown.

@acenewsservices

Reports of the Australian outage began flooding in about 3pm AEST.

The global outage impacted a raft of Australian companies and government agencies on Friday afternoon.

The outage impacted telco providers, media websites, banks and airlines, and is believed to have impacted servers.

Universities, law firms, Bunnings, blood donation services are also among the places where ABC readers are reporting experiencing outages.

Payment systems are causing major disruption at supermarkets and fuel stations.

People are stuck at fuel pumps unable to pay for their petrol.

Supermarket customers have been sending the ABC photos of self-check-outs with error messages.

And shops have been forced to close their doors.

Here’s what we know.

What happened?

The outage has been linked back to the US-based CrowdStrike, one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the world.

The company has software called CrowdStrike Falcon installed on Windows PCs globally, advertising protection from attacks including credential theft.

“Falcon is the CrowdStrike platform purpose-built to stop breaches via a unified set of cloud-delivered technologies that prevent all types of attacks,” the company’s website claims.

CrowdStrike launched a software update earlier this week, but the update caused computers to attempt to restart and display a blue-screen error message.

Cybersecurity expert Andy Prow said any disruption within a CrowdStrike system could affect the whole computer system, impacting laptops, self-checkout terminals and smart devices all at once.

“The bad guys are writing exploits and malware and viruses that get very deep inside your computer,” Mr Prow said.

“So, for something like CrowdStrike to work it has to be very deep in your computer.”

He advised the public against removing CrowdStrike systems from their computers, saying the move may expose them to security threats.

Australia’s National Cybersecurity coordinator Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness posted to a statement on social media and said she was aware of the outage.

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

“There is no information to suggest it is a cyber security incident. We continue to engage across key stakeholders.”

Australian cybersecurity company CyberCX has said it’s aware of the outage and is advising its customers in Australia and New Zealand.

“We understand that this has been caused by an issue affecting organisations who have installed CrowdStrike Falcon in their IT environments,” a CyberCX spokesperson said.

“CrowdStrike is a global cybersecurity company who provide detection and monitoring tools to cyber and IT teams.

“At this time, CyberCX is actively tracking the situation and are awaiting information detailing scope and recovery. “We will continue to support affected customers as this incident evolves.”

What has been impacted?

The technical issue is affecting Windows PC users globally.

On its X, Microsoft said it was investigating the incident, which appears to be affecting Microsoft 365 apps and services worldwide.

Users are reporting seeing the Blue Screen of Death error messages across banking institutions, supermarkets and media companies including the ABC.

The global outage earlier forced airlines in the US to ground flights.

It also caused flight cancellations and delays in India, Japan and across Europe.

Flights

Qantas check-in terminals have been confirmed to be hit by outages in airports across the country including in Sydney and Canberra.

Virgin Australia also said it was aware of “a large-scale IT outage impacting multiple airlines and other businesses which is having an impact on our operations”.

These are the updates provided by airports so far.

Sydney

A Sydney Airport spokesperson said the outage had impacted some airline operations and terminal services.

But, for now, flights were still arriving and departing.

“However there may be some delays throughout the evening,” the spokesperson said.

“We have activated our contingency plans with our airline partners and deployed additional staff to our terminals to assist passengers.”

Melbourne

Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport has said it is experiencing difficulties with check-in systems for select airlines.

Passengers have been advised to allow for extra time and monitor their respective flight updates.

Both domestic and international flight operations could be impacted.

Adelaide

Adelaide Airport said the outage was impacting check-in procedures for some airlines.

It said a small number of bag drop facilities and flight information screens had been affected.

The airport advised passengers flying tonight to allow extra time for check-in.

Perth

So far, the ABC understands that aircraft are still departing Perth Airport.

Brisbane

Check-in for some airlines at Brisbane Airport and some terminal services are being impacted.

Flights are continuing to operate.

Health and emergency services

The federal government said triple-0 services were not currently affected by the outage.

And so far emergency services in several states have told the ABC they are able to keep working.

Victoria

Emergency services also say they’ve not been affected by the outage.

Ambulance Victoria, ESTA/Triple-0, Fire Rescue Victoria all say they are not having issues with internal or external communications.

There are reports from Victoria Police staff that internal IT systems are down but the extent is not known yet.

The Royal Women’s Hospital and the Royal Children’s also appear to be unaffected.

Western Health which operates multiple hospitals in Melbourne’s western suburbs said it had “reverted to the use of paper-based patient records” as a result of the IT outage.

South Australia

The ambulance service, police and State Emergency Service say they are not affected by the IT outage.

Queensland

Queensland Health Hospitals are not affected by the outage.

But several of the state’s private hospitals are affected.

Systems are down in some Uniting Care and Ramsay Health Care hospitals.

Ramsay Health has about 20 facilities across the state.

“We are assessing the impacts at a local level across our hospitals and health services network to understand which systems are affected and developing contingency plans for patients,” A Ramsay Health spokesperson said.

“At this stage, we do not know how long the outrage will last.

“During this time, if you have questions regarding current Ramsay patients, please contact your local hospital by phone.

Queensland Health, the Queensland Fire Department, Queensland Police and Queensland Ambulance are currently unaffected by the outage.

Western Australia

A WA Health spokesperson said no WA heath clinical systems are impacted and hospitals are continuing to operate as normal.

Banks

Online banking has been affected by the outage.(ABC News: Crystalyn Brown)

Some banks including NAB, Westpac, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Bendigo Bank and Suncorp are being affected by the outage.

Internal systems, excluding Eftpos, are also currently down.

The Commonwealth Bank has confirmed some customers’ ability to make payments.

“We are aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies,” a CBA spokesperson told the ABC.

“We know some customers have been unable to make PayID payments. If you are unable to use PayID, you’re still able to make payments between your accounts or pay someone using their BSB and account number.”

Westpac says its customer-facing applications are not affected.

Power

South Australia’s power operation company SA Power Networks said it has been impacted by the outage.

“We are currently working to understand and resolve the issue,” an SA Power Network statement said.

In Victoria, Powercor and AEMO have confirmed the electricity system was not affected by the IT outages.  

Powercor said its internal corporate IT system was impacted, but this had no flow-on effect to the grid. 

Telcos and internet providers

Telstra said there had been hold-ups for some of its customers, but there was “no impact to our fixed or mobile network which continue to operate”.

An NBN spokesperson said there had been no evident impact to the network.

Transport

In NSW, regional trains on the Hunter Line between Newcastle and Dungog/Sconeare were back up and running after earlier disruptions.

There were no impacts to other modes of public transport and no impacts to the wider Sydney Trains network.

And no adverse impacts to the road network or traffic lights have been reported.

There were reports of taxis in Queensland being affected.

The managing director of Queensland company Black and White Cabs said they were unable to receive bookings or connect to drivers.

Taxis were still operating from ranks as usual.

At Sterling Publishing & Media Service Agency, we value transparency and accountability. We want to inform you that we are not responsible for any external content, links, or posts. Nonetheless, we are dedicated to providing exceptional services and sincerely appreciate your support. Thank you.