A major outage to a Microsoft service has put several radio stations offline, including ABC’s radio offerings and ARN’s stations.
The outage also hit the Seven and Nine Networks, Qantas and Virgin Australia, Woolworths, Telstra and several major banks. Website Down Detector, which monitors tech outages, showed dozens of companies appeared to have been affected.
The ongoing widespread outage is reportedly related to US-based cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike, which has its ‘Falcon sensor’ installed on many business computers to gather security data.
Microsoft’s online support system said that the situation should be improving slowly. However, it is a global issue affecting businesses of all shapes and sizes.
We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue. The latest information on impacted and recovered services will be provided within the admin centre under MO821132 and https://t.co/Mx6vPz0yjP
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 19, 2024
CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
But, given the size and nature of this incident, it may take some time to resolve. “Governments are closely engaged at all levels, focused on bringing together the affected parties and ensuring government entities institute the fix as quickly as possible”.
The outage appears to be related to a report from Microsoft on Thursday (US time) that it was investigating issues with its cloud services in the central US. This led to flights being grounded and cancelled across the country.
There is currently no evidence to suggestion that the system outage is a result of a cyber hack.
In a post to X, the national cyber security coordinator, Lieut Gen Michelle McGuinness confirmed that the current information suggests the “outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies”.
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.
— National Cyber Security Coordinator (@AUCyberSecCoord) July 19, 2024
The Australian government has released a statement confirming it is working closely with the national cyber security coordinator on this unfolding outage. “The information as it stands is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies. As the cyber security coordinator has said, there is no information to suggest this is a cyber security incident and they are continuing to engage across key stakeholders”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that a National Coordination Mechanism has been activated and is meeting now.
“I understand Australians are concerned about the outage that is unfolding globally and affecting a wide range of services. My Government is working closely with the National Cyber Security Coordinator. There is no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or Triple-0 services at this stage,” Albanese said.
When contacted by B&T a Microsoft spokesperson told us:
“We’re aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming.”
Media Outlets Down!
Many of the major radio players are off-air entirely. ARN is currently broadcasting via tape, and the situation has even led to malfunctioning checkouts at some Woolies stores.
Supermarkets
Local Coles has lowered its doors and with staff telling customers they’re closing. “You’ll hear all about it on the news tonight,” the store manager told a crowd outside. A trolley collector is telling people as they get out of their cars Coles is closed. pic.twitter.com/aHGXgMnYWY
— Molly Glassey (@GlasseyMolly) July 19, 2024
In a statement from Woolworths, the supermarket giant confirmed that six of its stores are currently shut with all others across the country open and trading. “In some cases, customers may find less registers available than normal so we’re grateful for their patience. A small number of online orders have been unable to be fulfilled and those customers have been contacted”.
“We’d also like to thank the thousands of team members who have helped customers throughout the afternoon and evening,” the statement said.
TECH OUTAGE: Self service machines across Woolworths supermarkets are not operational. Blue screen of death. #crowdstrike pic.twitter.com/RS42zcEQi2
— Archie Staines (@archiestaines9) July 19, 2024
Airport Chaos!
Melbourne Airport is experiencing a global technology issue which is impacting check-in procedures for some airlines. Passengers flying with these airlines this afternoon are advised to allow a little extra time to check-in. Please check with your airline for flight updates. pic.twitter.com/pFjOjReMKX
— Melbourne Airport (@Melair) July 19, 2024
The airport has confirmed that passengers arriving on international flights are being processed normally, passengers departing internationally on Jetstar and Scoot are experiencing ongoing issues but all other international airlines are currently processing passengers normally. Domestically, Rex is unaffected, Qantas and Virgin are slowly processing passengers whilst Jetstar is experiencing a significant outage.
Reuters is also reporting that several US airlines, including Delta, have been grounded and that all air traffic has been halted in Berlin until 0800 GMT.
Reports on Twitter suggest that some airports in India are resorting to handwritten boarding passes.
The Microsoft / CrowdStrike outage has taken down most airports in India. I got my first hand-written boarding pass today 😅 pic.twitter.com/xsdnq1Pgjr
— Akshay Kothari (@akothari) July 19, 2024
Banks Hit!
Commbank is among a series of banks reportedly being affected by the issue, and some customers are currently unable to make PayID payments.
“We are aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies. This outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform,” the bank confirmed in a statement.
“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”.
“We’re sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for your patience while we work through the impacts”.
Emergency Services
While the issue is impacting Telstra services, 000 call centres are not affected. “If you’re having holdups when trying to reach us this afternoon, it’s because of a global issue affecting both Microsoft and CrowdStrike,” the Telco confirmed in a post to X saying that it was working with organisations to rectify the issue.
If you’re having holdups when trying to reach us this afternoon, it’s because of a global issue affecting both Microsoft and CrowdStrike.
There’s no impact to calls to our Triple Zero call centres or our fixed and mobile network.
— Telstra (@Telstra) July 19, 2024
Transport Networks
The issue has also reportedly hit the Victorian rail network, Vline. “Trains are suspended due to communication fault. Further information to follow,” the network said in a post to X. It is understood that the service is now starting to return to normal.
Transport for NSW has confirmed trains are back up and running now on a number of lines, including Hunter Line between Newcastle and Dungog/Scone and the Southern Highlands Line between Campbeltown and Moss Vale/Goulburn, that were initially impacted by the outage.
“There are no impacts to other modes of public transport and no impacts to the wider Sydney Trains network,” Transport for NSW said in a statement confirming that there are no adverse impacts to the road network and traffic lights are operational.
“The Transport Management Centre and Sydney Trains have field crews across the roads and public transport network, and are working closely with NSW Police and emergency services”.
Government
It is understood that a number of government services including MyGov and Service NSW are being impacted.
In a statement Service NSW confirmed that transactions at its Service Centres and Contacts Centres have been impacted. “Service NSW apologises to customers for any inconvenience. Teams are working to restore services as quickly as possible. The majority of digital transactions have not been impacted and people are encouraged to complete transactions via the Service NSW website where possible”.
The NSW Government confirmed that a range of its services are being impacted. “An initial assessment has taken place to assess the impact across our services. NSW emergency services remain operational and available to respond to any requests for assistance at this time, 000 calls can be made, and there are no impacts to health services. However, there are some impacts to transport as well as Service NSW”.
The Victorian Government also released a statement to confirm that it is monitoring the impacts of the outages and is enacting community plans for services impacted. “There has been no impact to critical infrastructure or Triple Zero Victoria, and we are working closely with the Federal Government to understand the impact of the outage”.
Remote Education
B&T understands that remote workers and students at some universities are also being impacted by the outage.
Sport calls time off!
Tonight’s AFL game between Essendon and Adelaide at Docklands stadium, in Melbourne will likely be impacted with an email being sent to ticket holders who had not already downloaded their tickets.
“A global digital outage affecting multiple organisations is impacting AFL Member access to mobile tickets for tonight’s match,” the email said.
There is currently no word on whether the NRL match between Canberra Raiders and New Zealand Warriors in Canberra will be impacted.
It is also understood that no accreditation for the Paris Olympics can be issued, including those for transportation workers, medics and media.
What is the long term impact?
Nine tech expert, Trevor Long told Nine News that this is one of the most extensive software outages in history. “IT departments around the world are finding a way around this and bringing systems back online”.
Long said that he believed the “catastrophic” issue would attract a great deal of legal action in the long-run. “This won’t affect people at home, but small business owners simply have to wait until the issue is resolved”.
“Companies that are financially affected will go down the litigation path to recover their losses. This could be millions of millions of dollars”.
Professor Salil Kanhere, from the school of computer science and engineering at UNSW Sydney told The Guardian that the outage appears to have caused an issue with the CrowdStrike antivirus software. “It appears to have impacted Windows machines with this software installed, causing them to crash (blue screen error) and get stuck in boot loops”.
“An update to their software appears to have been rolled out globally without proper testing. Antivirus software is typically given access to a deep set of permissions (kernel-level access) on computers to protect against viruses and malware. The flip side, however, is that if this very software malfunctions, then it can crash the computer, as we have observed with this outage. This incident appears to violate every good software engineering practice we know. It also points to the need for mechanisms that can protect a computer’s operating system from potentially misbehaving anti-virus software”.
More to follow.
This report is a joint effort between Tom Fogden, Arvind Hickman and Aimee Edwards.
