Companies hit by the unprecedented global IT outage are returning to normal but travellers continue to face delays with airports plagued by knock-on effects.
Banks, media outlets, airports, supermarkets, retailers, government services and even hospitals were left scrambling by the outage that hit just after 3pm Australian Eastern Standard Time on Friday.
The outage was a result of major cyber security firm CrowdStrike deploying a software update with a defect, not a malicious cyber attack.
The Australian government is still trying to get to the bottom of the impact with a National Coordination Mechanism meeting being held with CrowdStrike representatives on Saturday morning.
The country’s cyber spy organisation, the Australian Signals Directorate, has also warned people to beware of cyber hackers releasing malicious websites and code purporting to help fix the outage.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is on leave but will be briefed regularly on the outage.
An update is expected after the government meeting detailing the effects still being felt while companies reboot their systems.
Airlines were among those companies still cleaning up the mess created by the outage.
Thousands of people were left stranded at airports on Friday with budget carrier Jetstar hit the hardest, cancelling more than 150 flights.
Delays continued at Australian airports on Saturday as additional flights wreaked havoc on schedules.
Melbourne travellers suffered the brunt of delays at Terminal 4 – where Jetstar arrives and departs – with the airport confirming that baggage issues were slowing down check-in processes.
Other terminals were operating normally.
Jetstar confirmed that while its IT systems had returned to normal, “there are some continued impacts which may affect some flights”.
Sydney Airport urged customers to check with their airline before travelling for delay information.
“Airport systems are online and operations are normal, however, there are some knock-on impacts to individual airlines,” Sydney Airport said in a statement.
Supermarkets were back online on Saturday after some shoppers were forced to abandon trolleys full of goods during the outage.
Woolworths and Coles both said all stores were open and operational on Saturday but warned some check-outs were still unavailable.
“We are putting on additional team members to assist customers with their shopping,” a Coles spokesperson said.
Woolworths confirmed its online order service was up and running as well.
The majority of Dan Murphy’s and BWS stores are set to open as usual on Saturday but some will have altered opening hours.
Online and delivery services are still impacted with orders made on Friday likely to take some time to be completed, a spokesperson said.
The IT outage prompted federal politician Bob Katter to demand cash remains in circulation amid the “danger” of relying on digital technology.
“This a wakeup call that the risk associated with a cashless society is too high for us to pay,” Mr Katter said.
A significant concern raised by the outage was the vulnerability of global IT systems.
“It just shows we live in a highly connected software-enabled, so digitally connected world,” Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre CEO Rachael Falk told ABC Breakfast.
“It’s incredibly vulnerable when something goes down.”
Ms Falk said it should be a wake-up call for businesses and governments around the world, because the impacts would have been catastrophic if it had been a cyber attack.
The financial costs are expected to be tallied by economists over coming days as they estimate the money lost to businesses.
Source: AAP
