According to Home Affairs Minister Claire O’Neill, the company responsible for the largest IT outage in world history has informed the Federal Government that automatic repairs are imminent to restore systems.
The global outage occurred on Friday afternoon after cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike updated its Falcon software product, leading to malfunctions that caused widespread disruptions.
Microsoft estimates that 8.5 million Windows devices worldwide have been affected by the outage.
During a meeting of federal, state government, and private sector representatives, CrowdStrike indicated that an automated fix similar to Microsoft’s approach would be implemented to address the issue.
The National Coordination Mechanism, established during the COVID-19 pandemic, held its third meeting to expedite the process of restoring systems across various sectors affected by the blackout.
CrowdStrike has identified and distributed a fix for the issue, assuring customers that it was not a cyberattack and advising them to check for software updates on their support portal.
Despite ongoing challenges in sectors like supermarkets, there are no food shortages or need for stockpiling. Reports of scammers taking advantage of the outage have surfaced, urging caution among Australians.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry predicts that some businesses may not reopen for several days due to the IT outage. While the impact on businesses is significant, the extent of losses remains difficult to quantify.
Source: www.theguardian.com
