Excerpt from The Economic Times Article, Published on July 19, 2024
A global outage at Crowdstrike affects Australian media, banks, and telecoms, causing disruptions. Learn about the impact and responses from key stakeholders.
A significant cyber outage impacting Australian media, banks, and telecommunications companies has been linked to an issue at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, according to a spokesperson for Australia’s home affairs minister on Friday.
The crowdsourced website Downdetector showed multiple outages at various banks and telecom companies. The office of Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator, Michelle McGuinness, stated, “I am aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting several companies and services across Australia this afternoon,” in a post on X.
McGuinness noted, “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 cybersecurity incident. We continue to engage with key stakeholders.”
State broadcaster ABC confirmed experiencing a “major network outage” but did not provide a reason. Additionally, a pre-recorded message played on Sky News Australia, as regular programming was disrupted, featured correspondent Tom Connell stating that the outage was not believed to be the result of a hack. “Our computers, our systems are down, all the things that make Sky News run down and indeed for many other major companies around the country,” he said.
The disruptions have raised concerns about the reliability and resilience of cybersecurity measures in place at Crowdstrike, a key player in the cybersecurity industry. The firm is known for its robust threat detection and response capabilities, which protect numerous organizations globally.
As investigations continue, stakeholders await further information on the root cause of the outage and the steps being taken to prevent future occurrences. This incident highlights the importance of continuous vigilance and robust cybersecurity infrastructure to safeguard against both technical issues and potential cyber threats.
To delve deeper into this topic, please read the full article on The Economic Times
