There are reports of IT outages impacting institutions across Australia including, news outlets, banks and telecommunications.
Real-time problem and outage monitoring site Downdetector shows several organisations including Commonwealth Bank, Optus and Australia Post are experiencing disruptions.
In a statement on social media platform X, National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuiness said: “I am aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across Australia this afternoon.
“Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies.
“There is no information to suggest it is a cyber security incident. We continue to engage across key stakeholders.”
Banks have been impacted by the outage. Source: SBS News
A spokesperson for NSW Police said systems are impacted but that people are still able to make triple-zero calls.
There are also unconfirmed reports that airports are being disrupted with passengers unable to check-in.
The outage appears to be an issue with Crowdstrike, an American cybersecurity technology company.
SBS News has contacted Crowdstrike for comment.
Professor of cybersecurity at Monash University Nigel Phair said while it is too early to know for sure, the major disruptions appear “non-malicious.”
“Normally you’d think it is a malicious hack, it appears to be an outage or a glitch with the company itself, so non-malicious,” he said.
“There could be major ramifications for cybersecurity, a lot of major organisations rely on Crowdstrike,” he said.
“When a large company like Crowdstrike goes down, they all do.”
Australian cybersecurity company CyberCX has been monitoring the outages 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
“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.”
This is a developing story and this article will be updated. Follow the latest from SBS News at www.sbs.com.au/news, or on the SBS News app available on iOS or Android.
